Chapter Five - Fit it up!

First of all, thanks to you who are staying faithful with the reading of this book. It has great ideas and many practical suggestions thoughout that will help us better prepare our students to be successful at high school.

The student named Kayla reminds me of several I have taught and known before. "Nope, I keep reading and hope it makes sense when I am done". If she doesn't understand her response is, "Then, oh well". That is frustrating for us for sure but a student can't really be happy with that feeling either. Have you had this experience with a student? If so, and I know you have, found a reliable solution?

I know a lot of these fix-it strategies are familiar to you but are there any that are new that are of interest?

Reading and language arts teachers, what can you advise a content teacher that may not have your expertise as to which fix-it strategies would work best in given textual situations?

Chapter Four - Tracking Confusion

Do you hear voices...when you are reading? I do, but does my mind wander at times. I can sure identify with the students. Even reading this chapter I found myself listening to my distracting voice..."wow, Mark sure is going fast on the new mower", "How many times am I going to have to send that job announcement to personnel", or "I wonder why there are so many bugs in my office". But, I catch myself and get through the reading and gain meaning.

Do your students try to abdicated their responsibility for understanding what they read? How have you countered this student belief in the past? In the future?

I love how Ms. Tovani describes real world monitoring. Have you ever thought about the monitoring processes' importance even when things are done well? If you expect to repeat success you have to know why you succeeded in the first place. As a basketball player I spent countless hours thinking why I was successful or not, as do I as a school principal.

What is your opinion of the six signals, listed on page 38, that Mrs. Tovani teachers her students to let them know they are confused?

What did you gather from the reading on pages 38-47 that will aide you in helping your students to gain a better understanding of what they read?

Chapter Three: Purpose is Everything

Ms. Tovani makes a statement on page 24 "a reader's purpose affects everything about reading".  Have you thought about it this way before?  If so, what practices do you do to make sure the students have a compelling purpose.  If not, how might this concept change your practice?

Do the complaints her students use sound familiar? 

Thinking aloud is a commonly used strategy.  React to her practice of modeling the think aloud process for her students.

What other strategies mentioned sound useful for your classes?  Is modeling important in these strategies as well?

Chapter Two The Realities of Reading

Good information so far, wouldn't you say.  I wish I knew this when I was teaching 8th graders science 18 years ago.

Respond with a comment please...

What has been your experience with what Ms. Tovani describes as resistive readers and word callers? What strategies have you found successful? 

Do you agree, based on your experience, with the seven strategies used by successful readers as proposed on page 17?  If you are not a reading teacher was this new to you?

What did you learn or what did have reinforced to you from pages 19-20 with regards to our students' elementary reading experience as compared to what they experience with us in the middle school?

Chapter One Fake Reading

Good Morning All!

I hope you have enjoyed getting started with our reading of Cris Tovani's book.  I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked at this point but we will make it.  Today's post is about chapter one.

Have you had students that fake read?  React to the list of things the kids do on pages 6 and 7 when they read.  Sound familiar?

Do you agree with the author that students often perceive reading as drudgery?  Is your toughest challenge getting reluctant readers to read?  I wonder though is it only struggling readers that are reluctant?

What do you think of her strategy to "disarming their defenses" by using a past experience of reading that was important or meaningful to them?  What about her personal example? 

Looks like some great chapters ahead.  Please respond with your comments and check back regularly.
Thanks for your participation!! 

Welcome to "I Read It, But I Don't Get It" Blog for MVMS

 

In the next few weeks we will be discussing the main points of the book I Read It, But I Don't Get It by Cris Tovani. You will click on the comments link to add to this blog. You will need to create a Google account to be able to post comments to this blog. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Google.com
2. In the search bar just type Blogger.
3. Google will take you through a series of steps to create an account with Google.
4. If you already have an email with Google (Gmail), just use that or you may use your school email for updates.
5. You do not have to create a blog to use Blogger...just need a Google account.
6. When you post a comment you will need to log in with your Google User ID.
7. If you do not understand how to do this, you may contact Mr. Highfield through his school email. He will get in touch with you and talk you through the steps or he can met you at school to help you.
8. I would add this blog to your Favorites for easy access.
9. Notice comment one for instructions and expectations.