Tovani Chapter 5

Summary: Students need a purpose for reading, especially if the teacher expects them to retain and to discuss the text. Teachers need to make sure their lessons and assignments are meeting their instructional/essential purposes, which is ultimately up to the teacher's discretion.

I liked the following worksheet. I think it could come in handy when making lesson plans. We can ask students questions to build reasons for reading, and use these questions to guide the learning of the unit.Many times while making lessons, we do not stop to think about what students may perceive as difficult.
Format of "Instructional Purpose" sheet:

1. Instructional Purpose (What is essential for students to know?)
2. What two places may cause students difficulty?
3. What will you model that will help students negotiate the difficult parts?
4. What do they need to do with the information they are reading?
5. How will they hold their thinking while they read?

I found it very interesting that the history teachers all believed they had to teach in a specific way/a certain time period. Having preconceived notions about what we should teach can really stunt our creativity as teachers. "...'they' is often 'us' when it comes to mandates about content." (59) We say that "they" are ruling our classrooms and "they" are limiting what we teach... But are they? Not to the extent we sometimes think. 

Again, modeling is important. Students seeing this will see that the reading information you are teaching can really be used. Setting the expectations up-front is very important in order to guide the student while he/she reads. "To ask students to do something on a first read that we ourselves are't doing is asking too much... perhaps it would be more efficient to tell them up front what we want them to do with the information when they finish reading." (60) 

In college, most of our reading is assigned to broaden our knowledge on the subject of the class and to help us get better grades on the test. I see the purpose of most readings, but in some classes reading in pointless. Even if there is a test, I find myself still giving myself purposes as to why the material is interesting, even if I find it horribly boring. "I realize that no one now gives me a purpose for most of the reading I do. I have to give myself a purpose if I am to remember what I've read. (61)

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