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!