I have always considered myself an above average reader. I
was on a first name basis with the librarians at my elementary school and I
would read the newest Harry Potter novel
faster than the students around me. With all that said, the reading passages in
the second chapter of Subjects Matter
made me stumble.
Reading the paragraphs that were intentionally “too damn
hard” (Daniels and Zemelman 34) made me understand that while I can read a middle grades text book
and understand the information presented to me, my students could very well
stumble as much as I did when read about cricket. Reading is second nature at
this point in my life, but somewhere along the way a teacher gave me the tools
I needed to get to this level of comprehension. I found myself consciously
noticing the tools I was unconsciously using as I finished the section.
The MS2
passage was worse than the first two and I found my eyes crossing as I tried to
discern the meaning of a “well behaved in vitro capsid assembly reaction” (33).
After I fumbled my way through the sea of largely unfamiliar science terms, I was
able to reflect on how much easier that passage would have been had I been
familiar with at least twice as many words. As a math teacher, my students will
be introduced to new vocabulary almost every time they read the text. They
will understand the material significantly more if I give them starting points
of information so that they will already have the appropriate schema waiting to
be filled when they tackle the reading.
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Hi Maddie!
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about "unconsciously" using certain reading tools that you, as a pretty experienced reader and learner have been using for a very long time. But I question when you say "a teacher gave [you] the tools" that you use when you read and comprehend what you are reading. At least in my experience, I never had a teacher that taught me those reading techniques and learning strategies; rather, as I read more, and got older I found that those techniques and skills just naturally became a part of my reading process. (Just a thought)
Sarah P
(word count: 100)
You've learned such important lessons, Maddie! I hope you'll carry them into your future classroom. Remember what your students will need in order to "click" their way through mathematics texts.
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