Draper Ch1

Summary: When teaching, the students' needs should be at the forefront of what and how we teach. Literacy specialists and content-area teachers have collaborated to raise the literacy in all subjects and, more importantly, the world outside of school. 

The authors of the book do a great job showing the strengths of the teachers and literacy specialists. They explain their relationship with each other in the process towards the content-area literacy instruction. In reading Tovani, I had more of the impression of her coming into the classroom and telling the teachers how to do things better. This chapter explains how everyone works together.

It was mentioned that we need to "endure that instructional approaches do not simply fit the various disciplines from the standpoint of the literacy specialist, but be found essential by experts within that discipline". This approach is great because it ensures that students are getting the best-of-the-best when it comes to their instruction.

I like that the book stresses the importance of students participating in "creation, inquiry, expression, and problem solving." Along with this, the authors' four main instructional aims show their genuine interest in the student rather than merely increasing their test scores. This type of instruction and way of teaching is what students need to see and feel from teachers. They are not the school's test subject; they are individually important and each student is a contributing member to society.