Chapters 3 and 4

Tovani, C. (2004). Do I really have to teach reading?: Content comprehension, grades       6-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Summary: Chapters three and four talked about how in each class there is sort of reading that is required, whether it be with a book or a chart. Tavani also gave examples as to how to keep someone interested in reading and for those that reading is difficult she gave ways to be able to figure out what is being said. Accessible texts were also mentioned so that students could find material about a specific topic that was more at their level and they could understand what is being said.

            While reading this text, I was able to relate to the teacher who thought that he was never going to have to use reading in industrial tech. As a math teacher I feel that you do not use reading in math, of course we have a textbook, but no one actually reads the book. Students just look at the example. Two things that I did not take into account were that reading did not just imply words. We have to read graphs, examples, equations, calculators, rulers and many more things. Secondly, I falsely assumed that since I never read my math book, no one else did. Since I was able to just look at the examples and figure out what was going on, I never read my books. Come to find out, a friend of mine said that she always read her math books to understand what was going on. I need to take into account, that just because things came easy for me, they did not come easy for others.

            The idea about having accessible texts in the classroom really sparked my interest. Looking back on my high school years, I remember reading books that were past my reading ability. I am a slow reader and do not comprehend things very easily. Like Tavani, I would read the book, but then go to outside sources to figure out what was going on and the meaning of the text. I found the books very interesting after I was able to understand the background and the plot behind the story. It helps to be able to visualize the story in my head so that I have like a movie going on in my mind and I can remember what I read.