Chapter 5- "Why Am I Reading This?"

     This chapter starts with a misconception that is prevalent among students in all grades which is "equating fast reading with good reading" as Tovani puts it.  In reality, good reading happens in all different ways.  Good readers adjust their speed to better comprehend what they are reading.  Good readers also need to establish a meaning for getting into the book in the first place.  Your purpose will then set the speed of your reading and determine what you will remember.  This is important for all educators to remember.  Tovani recalls a situation where she was talking with a newer high school teacher and the teacher was complaining because she was having her students read a book and they were not fully understanding what she wanted from them.  Tovani says that teachers often struggle in finding a balance or knowing what to teach from a book when there is so much information.      So what is a solution to this problem?
     One solution to this problem could be to use an instructional purpose sheet to determine what the most important concept is for your students to learn.  There are five questions that the teacher answers which helps to determine what he or she will teach to their students.  These questions are as follows:

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

     Holding thinking can be a difficult concept to grasp, but in other words, what can we do to make sure children will remember what they have read and are reading?  The students could write down their thoughts on sticky notes and attach them to the page, they can write in the margins (mark their book), or maybe journal about their reading to help them remember.  Another technique that is probably most effective in getting your students to hold their thinking is relating the material to the student.  Show them that this is important and relevant to their lives.  Have them draw on background information or questions to connect with the text.   
     Tovani mentions history teachers again.  They have so much to teach in their content field that they could feel pressured to rush through everything without checking for understanding.  As a health educator in the making, I have certain benchmarks and standards that I need to go through in one semester.  That is a lot of information to teach in one semester with all of the interuptions we face on a daily basis.  It would be easy to rush through, give tests, and move on.  For this reason, Tovani stresses the importance of clear instructional purposes.  Tovani says, "when we share a clear instructional purpose, we give our students a lens through which to read the piece, (pg. 59)."  For example, you could say, "By the time you finish reading tonight, I want you to be able to discuss three causes of the civil war, (pg. 59)."  These techniques help students to hold their thinking, as well as the double entry journal discussed in the previous blogs.
     One last thing I wanted to touch on is the use of voice, specifically two different voices used in reading.  These voices are your reciting voice and your conversation voice.  Tovani says, "Recognizing that readers have different voices when they read is a powerful monitoring device.  If students learn to recognize the difference between their reciting voice and their conversation voice, they will know when they are no longer making sense of the text, (pg. 62)."  So what is the difference between the two voices?  Your conversation voice is the one you use when you are actively participating in the text.  This means, as the reader, you are asking questions as you read, disagreeing with the text, and forming your own opinions about what is happening.  Your reciting voice is when you are no longer paying attention.  This happens when you are just going through the motions, only reading the words on the page.  When this happens, typically you have to re-read a couple times to fully understand what is going on in the text.  To solve this, give students a clear instructional purpose for reading and relate the reading to their lives.  Help students to connect with the text and become an active participant in their education. 
     So... here is what works:

• Be SELECTIVE about what you have your students read, make it important!
• Develop a clear instructional PURPOSE for reading. 
• Give students an opportunity to USE what they are reading.

Chapter 4- Real Rigor: Connecting Students with Accessible Text

     Tovani was given the task, years ago, with figuring out why so many history students were failing their class.  She soon discovered that the textbook was way too hard for the students to be reading and completely understanding.  When she approached the principal with this information, he argued that they cannot get new textbooks.  They spent too much money on those books brand new and they will be staying in the school for at least the next 10 years!  These texts were going to be the student's primary source of information for the next ten years.  She went to all of the history teachers and told them they were covering too much content and expecting too much from the text.  Tovani says, "The course textbook seems like the best solution, but only if students are actually reading it.  The reading material is often above their grade level and inconsiderately written.  Concepts are introduced too quickly.  Too many vocabulary words are thrown at students, with not enough opportunity to use them.  Students' background knowledge on the topic may be limited, so they have nothing to connect the new reading to.
     What do we do about this?  What is our solution?  The solution, according to Tovani, is accessible text.  An accessibl text is a "text that helps students make a connection between school subjects and the real world because it helps them experience reading that is done in the real world."  Just because we give students accessible texts does not mean that it uses any less rigor.  If we give students text after text that is too difficult for them to read, not only will they not understand, but they may resort to cheating or feel defeated in school due to the fact that they feel stupid.  Tovani says that when students are given texts that are too hard for them to read, they begin to feel as though all reading done in school is pointless.
     One idea to help children succeed is text sets.  Tovani got this idea from elementary schools.  These classrooms typically split the reading into different lengths, difficulty, and structure, as well as author.  These sets are accessible to students and are interesting and relevant.  They give students a variety of choices to choose from and helps them to learn content information.  The beautiful thing about this idea is that you can use it in any content field!  As the teacher, you can split the reading into as many different text sets as you would like and have as many as you would like, just make it easy for the children.  Make these texts appropriate in level of the reading, content, and variety of texts.
     So... here is what works:

• Give students a CHOICE in their reading material.
• Make your students see the CONNECTION between what they are reading and the real world: the reading has a purpose.
• Give students INTERESTING and provacative texts, not boring ones.
• DON'T let your textbook do the teaching, you are the expert!        

Chapter 3- Parallel Experiences: Tapping the Mother Lode

     In this chapter, Tovani opens by telling a story about teaching content tachers, in a workshop, about teaching reading in their content classrooms.  One teacher she encounters in the workshop is an industrial tech teacher.  This is basically "shop" in high schools.  He wants to know why he has to participate because student's "do not read" in his class.  Tovani thinks about this and explains to the man that of course his students read, maybe he is so good at it that he doesn't realize it!  In his class, students read blueprints and directions on how to build birdhouses.  They do a lot of reading, it is just a different kind of reading.  Tovani stresses the importance of teaching reading in your content field; as content teachers, we need to teach students how to be better readers in our content field.
     One thing Tovani says in her book is, "I'm a pretty good reader of literature, but just because I can read and understand poetry doesn't mean I'm an expert math reader, (pg. 26)."  We have to make sure that we are teaching our children how to comprehend the information for our content area.  For example, I will be teaching health.  I cannot give the children an article from the Scientific American and expect them to understand and write a comprehension essay on the article.  They need to learn how to disect and pick out what they need and don't need.  They also need to be able to see the significance of the information to their lives and connect with the article in some way.  Another important step in teaching reading is to model.  Make sure that the child knows you struggle as well, but use different techniques to get through and understand the reading; then model the techniques for your students. 
     My favorite part of this chapter is when Tovani talks about the example of reading she gives to teachrs in her workshop to make them think about how they read.  She gives them an article called, "Di Tri Berrese, (pg. 126)."  This is not written in Italian or nonsense words, but when reading aloud, you can actually understand little bits of the reading.  This is a story about the three little bears, but twisted a little bit.  By reading this story, it teaches teachers that sounding out words is not enough to grasp the concept of the reading, but you must draw on what you already know about the story and reading and dig into your background knowledge.  Students need to be taught that you think while you read.  If you do not think while you read, you will not be connecting to the story or tapping into your background knowledge and therefore, you will not understand the reading.
     The last thing I wanted to mention that Tovani talks about is staying with the text.  She uses the example of the book Frankenstien.  The high school class that she was talking to about the book could not seem to get interested in it.  She connected with the students by telling them that she really couldn't get into the story either until... she found a technique that separates the book into three parts where the last part is the most exciting.  She then took an exciting paragraph from the book and gave it to the students to read.  They were suddenly interested in the book and began asking questions which made them want to read to find the answers.  By doing these small activities and gaining the students trust and interest, they will learn to be better readers and enjoy reading.

So... here is what works according to Tovani:

• Always IDENTIFY what your students are struggling with.
• MODEL reading a challenging piece of text for your students that will let you experience the difficulty they have as students.
• SHARE with your students ways to overcome their struggles in reading with ways you overcame the struggle.        

Chapter 2- The "So What?" of Reading Comprehension.

     Tovani, so far, starts each chapter with a personal experience.  I think this is so the reader can better connect with her and what she teaches in her book.  This story was about an activity she was doing with her class.  Her class would read a book and write on sticky notes where they felt a connection and what that connection was.  They would write their connection on the sticky note and turn it in to Tovani.  There was one girl in the class that always would ask, "so what?"  Everytime smeone would share their thoughts about a book or raise present something they felt important, this girl would always say the same thing, "so what?"  While Tovani was reading the sticky notes, she was disappointed.  The students were not making deep connections to the story and their superficial connections they did make were not helping them read and understand the story.  Tovani decided that it was time for her to ask all of her students, "so what?"  She gave all the students a double entry diary to use while they read.  The left side is where you write the quote from the book and the right side is where you would write your connection, or your "so what."  The children were to take their sticky notes and elaborate.  It was difficult for the students at first, however once they really found the deeper meaning in their connection with the story, they were able to better understand the story.  A double entry diary could be a really useful tool, esecially in a different content field.  Different content fields can use these tools easily becuase they are more interesting than just reading a book, can create interest in the story, and help the children to connect or identify with the text.
     One problem I think we have today, and have become all too okay with, is stopping children's thinking too soon.  Tovani said that this is exactly what her sticky note activity did.  She was not giving the children the time they needed to explore and connect the way she expected.  By giving them the diary and having them expand, it helped the student's to make an honest connection with the reading. 
     Tovani gives four principles that she uses in her instruction.  These include:

• Assessing the text that the students have to read.
• Providing a model of the thinking process you, as the teacher, use.
• Defining a purpose and reason for the students to read and write.
• Teaching students to hold their thinking and give them plenty of opportunities to use that information.

     "I want to lose 30 pounds and and eat chocolate cake all the time.  It's not going to happen."  This is how Tovani approaches teachers who want their students to "do it all."  Tovani says that this is a trade off.  The teacher must decide what is important enough to keep and what can afford to be dropped for the benefit of the students.  Maybe substituting something more interesting for the students to read that would teach them the same thing would be more beneficial to the students.  They would enjoy reading it, maybe make a connection to the reading, and be able to explain what they have read and learned from it after reading with an opportunity to do so. 
     Lastly, Tovani closes with some teaching points that work.

• Always be asking yourself WHY you are doing something and HOW it will help students think, read, or write even in a certain content field.
• There is NO one right way to introduce comprehension tools to students.
• Make your activities GENUINE and AUTHENTIC for the students.
• Use the STUDENT'S work and comments to plan lessons from day to day.

     I personally love the idea of the double entry diary.  I am going to be a health educator and a lot of articles out there in cirrculation use complicated language.  Viruses and diseases have long and hard to pronounce names, ingredients in medications are almost impossible to read, and there are so many different topics in health to cover in one semester.  With this double entry diary, it can deepen the child's understanding of the reading, possibl the severity of the topic, and most importantly, maybe the student will connect with the reading in a way where they can share the information with friends and family.  My goal would be to create an atmosphere where the child then becomes the peer educator from a deep understanding and connection with the content through reading.           

Chapter 1- "I'm the Stupid Lady from Denver..."

     Eventhough the first chaper of my book is only 9 pages long, there is so much information and so many examples that I would love to share.  The author, Tovani, starts the chapter with a short story to explain what she does... teach reading skills to children and teach teachers how to implement these strategies in their content fields.  Her example took place in California in a high school science class.  The children were learning about viruses in a long, boring, and complicated chapter.  She was able to connect with the high school students in the fact that she sat by a big sick man on the plane and when this sick man sneezed on Tovani, she immediately began to ask herself questions about what this man might have that he could have given to her.  By questioning, she was able to pull out the chapter and read intently, looking for the answers to her questions.  One strategy that Tovani teaches is developing a series of questions about the chapter to further interest in the topic of reading.  If children are not interested or do not want to learn anything about the topic, it is harder to get them interested.
     Tovani also stresses that learning to read does not end in elementary school.  As students move through their schooling, reading becomes more complicated and complex.  Another srategy that Tovani uses with the children is to use a highlighter or sticky notes to find important words, or words they do not know the meaning of, and with a different color, look for the meaning or importance of those words to further not only understanding, but to remember and reuse what they have read. 
     I really connected with Tovani when she said that content teachers teach in their field for their passion of the content area.  These teachers do not want to focus on teaching reading because they have so much to teach in so little time.  However, when teaching in your content field, if the students cannot understand what they are reading, will they really be interested in what you are teaching?  Tovani suggests using reading materials that will really catch the student's attentition and interest, even if they are not part of the typical lesson plan.  Sometimes using something outside of what was planned will do the trick to get the students interested and learning. 
     One last strategy to try would be to draw a picture about what the student's have been reading.  This picture would demonstrate what they student's took from the reading and show their understanding of the material.  The line that Tovani closes with, that sums up the whole chapter is, "Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking while we read." 
     I learned a few new strategies that I am very excited to implement in my content field of health education!    

Blogging about blogging

     I wanted to start by saying I have never had a blog before, but in saying that, I am excited to start my first one now.  I found it appropriate to name my blog after the title of the book I am reading called "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?"  When I first discovered that I had to take a class to teach reading and writing, I though it was a little silly and immediately thought of the title of my book!  After all, I am going to school to be a health educator.  However, after only a few short weeks of this class, I am already seeing how beneficial this information is to my content field.  I never knew that learning the skills to teach reading and writing would open new opportunities for me to use in a health setting or classroom.
     This is my first blog so before I started, I wanted to go online and look at some other blogs that I thought looked interesting to see what they were about.  I always thought that blogs were like a journal for people to spill their emotions that other people really don't care about; much like facebook.  Going online and looking through other blogs, I see that some can be very informational and fact based like medical blogs.  I feel like any blog has the potential to be a good blog if it is honest and fact based.   
     In saying all of this, I am so excited to start blogging about my book, hearing other ideas and opinions about my book, and completing this class so I can have even more beneficial information and ideas to be the best health educator I can be!