Summary: Tovani deepens her understanding of how she would like students express how they think during their reading process. She gives guidelines for marking texts, along with methods and tools to aid in student comprehension.
"What do you think?" (67) is Tovani's main question here. This is very important because it gets the students thinking from their own point of view. there is no correct answer, but there is room for creative thought--something I found to be lacking in my own high school education. It is also important for the student to be asking questions too in order to gain learning while reading.
I find it a very beneficial idea to use student work in examples during class. This shows support for students and their work. If they see their work is being used, they will want to produce better results and their confidence will rise because they will know they're doing something right. "Many times a student's words are just the ticket when it comes to helping another student understand what I mean" (75). I find this very true. If a teacher lectures on something I do not understand, my first instinct is to ask a friend next to me to summarize what he/she was teaching.
I liked her use of highlighters in the classroom--having students use yellow to mark confusing spots, pink easily comprehended items, and other colours to mark different purposes in the text. I do this in textbooks that are hard for me to understand, such as my Meteorology book this semester. I find it easier to go back when I know terms are highlighted in yellow and new/important information is underlined in blue.
Tovani said something that I think is quite important: "Where there are several ways to respond to the text, the student as well as the teacher tends to get more out of the exercise" (83). This method of allowing students to use different methods goes great with knowing that students have different ways of learning. If she had required all students to use the sticky note method, some of the students would not benefit from that method as much as they would with the double-entry journal type method. It is always good to look for areas of integrating different types of learning styles.
Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?: Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2004. Print.
I see you using "determining importance" as a reading strategy throughout many of your responses by pulling out quotes and writing your thoughts in response. What other strategies can you try. I have noticed some questioning (such as the success/failure question) and connections. What else are you doing as a reader? As an English teacher it is so important that you practice utilizing ALL of the reading strategies so that you are better prepared to model them all for your students. Try labeling some of your strategies.
ReplyDelete