Chapter 12

First, I would just like to say that this semester has flown by. I have really enjoyed our class and our many interactions with each other and I would like to wish everyone luck in the future!

Okay, now on to this week's reading; Chapter 12. A few things stuck out to me while reading the thing I kept go back to was the idea of giving students a choice about what they read. I understand that there are select literature that teachers have to assign, but I do agree that students will learn to love reading if they get to read something they have an interest in.

I have always loved reading but I really did not appreciate certain genres as much as others. I recently spent time with my younger cousin at an Family-Easter-Fun-Time. My cousin is in middle school and he was telling me about the Accelerated Reader program. Each quarter students are required to participate in outside reading, they need at least 20 points and it counts as a quiz grade. My cousin admitted he didn't participate in AR this past quarter because his teacher required all books to be Classical Literature. He is excited for 4th quarter because the required genre is SciFi. So this has me asking; why can't we give students more of a choice? Especially with and outside reading program. I know that my love of reading came after I starting reading about things I had a personal interest in.

Ps. I gave him a copy of this, it's not SciFi, but he keeps texting me how about how funny it is.

This week's reading was a quick and easy read for me. I am not sure whether I have read ahead at some point or if I have just heard some of the reading tips D&Z mention in Chapter 11 before.

Oh well, Chapter 11 still had valuable tips on helping students with understanding what they read. While I was never a struggling reader growing up, I can totally relate to the idea of reading a passage and after finishing having no clue what I had just read.

So when I see students, through my observations, struggling with a reading assignment I can relate. I have observed students reading something and look up quizzically and ask, "What's a [blank]?" or "What that mean?". So when D&Z mentioned that some students are just not familiar with the content in a reading that really made a connection for me.

Another thing that really stuck out to me in this week's reading was the idea of supportive relationships. Struggling readers are frustrated and their confidence is low, which may led them to just give up. If they have a teacher who they trust they will be more likely to keep at it because they know that you have their best interest in mind and they trust you.

While I was reading Chapter 11, I kept making connect to my observations at North Providence High School. I have observed my cooperating teacher using similar tips that this chapter talked about in his own classroom. I really am happy to have such an awesome cooperating teacher and have already learned a great deal from him.