Chapter 1 Reflections:
As I reflect on
the reading material for Chapter 1 of All
Children Read, the first thing I noticed was the qualities of a good
teacher of reading. Many of these
qualities are not just assigned to a good teacher of reading but a good teacher
in general. These include making
connections with children and families, loving all aspects of what they do, and
show enthusiasm and share knowledge of their subjects.
The important aspects of literacy help with not only
reading but all subjects and life in general.
As a math teacher, having critical thinking skills, developing
vocabulary, and sharing their feelings or describing their thought processes
are very important to being able to do and discuss mathematics problems. I am currently teaching a course where
students must complete real life problem situations and discuss the mathematics
and procedures behind the calculations they presented. Many of my students have trouble writing their
thought processes in detail, even if they did the entire process themselves.
Others have trouble getting through reading the situation and deciding what to
do with the information presented. They are now high school seniors, how do we
combat these issues as they prepare to enter the real world and tackle these
real situations and others on their own.
Especially if we go with the facts presented that state that being a
good reader means being able to have better jobs and a better quality of life
in general. I encourage my students to
keep trying, reading, and thinking about the math and hope that with practice
they will get better with writing the math.
Resource Review Reflections and
Connections to Chapter 1:
In reviewing the articles in the Literacy Research and Instruction journal, one of the articles
focused on rural students in the southeast.
These students were involved in a nonfiction writing workshop to improve
their reading and writing school. From
personal experience and from my own teaching experience, I realize how difficult
it is for students who don’t have access to all the resources that middle class
students have access to. For these students
it is very important that the school get involved in the development process of
learning. The support of other groups is
very important to keeping students motivated to learn and succeed.
Another of the articles focused on the effects of
teacher training for reading instruction. I was trained in college to be a
reading tutor. The training taught me
there was much to know about teaching people to read but the most important
factor was keeping them motivated. If
the skills for reading instruction are not present for the teacher, they will
have a hard time keeping the students motivated to want to read. A simple mistake of moving to a challenging
level too early can lead to a complete shutdown for student learning.
The most important factor of learning any subject,
whether it be reading or math is motivation, without it student success is
going to be difficult to come by. We
want to increase their need to practice and get better but they need to keep
their own self-motivation to ensure that the practice will continue without so
much prodding from outside sources.
