Tovani Chapter 2

Summary: Tovani recalls an experience of when she had a student keep asking, "So what?" to everything that was taught. In order to solve this problem, she took the same question and asked it back to the students in order to improve upon reading comprehension. Essential comprehension skills are outlined, and the content dilemma of state vs. preferred instruction is addressed.

I find myself chuckling to many of the stories the author gives. I hope I can retain this humor when I am in the classroom and these examples are my actual students.

I absolutely LOVE the following quote! It encompasses my thoughts on how teaching English should be. I am encouraged to hear successful teachers such as Tovani that have this mindset.

"This is why I became a high school English teacher. I love literature because it helps me understand people. It teaches me about the human soul. Corny, but nevertheless true. My job isn't about raising state test scores or getting kids to the advanced rereading level on someone else's scale. My job is about teaching kids how to read and think about text in meaningful ways that help them better understand the people around them." 

Modeling in the classroom is very important. The story of the science teacher's double-entry journal had a good quote in it: "I model how I read--how I make sense of text and how I negotiate difficulty." This shows that these strategies really can be used in any content area. It also shows that we need to show students our own thought patterns while we interact with texts and other classroom materials. If we are not showing and teaching students how to interact with texts, we cannot hold them accountable for not knowing how to be an effective reader.

One thing I wonder about this book so far is the success rate of trying new things/ideas. Of course, she is not going to add many stories of how her ideas have failed, but it would be interesting to know how many ideas have succeeded versus how many have failed.


Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2004. Print.