Reading #1

This snow day has provided me some very appreciated time to catch up. So here goes:

Three Ideas

Chapter 1 - Content Literacy and the Reading Process

--Teachers often feel pressured in a standards environment to focus more on "knowing what" than on "knowing how" (5).

This is interesting and this can often be a distraction from focusing on teaching literacy/developing independent learners. In my case, I have not yet really began to feel the pressure of standards. Initially I was just trying to figure out how to get my students to listen to me and behave in a relatively acceptable manner in the classroom/get a relatively decent amount of work done. In other words, classroom management issues. Now that I feel my classroom management is acceptable (though still in need of improvement), I have been focusing on developing more interesting lessons (which will in turn improve the classroom environment as well). I am very interested in learning more strategies for teaching students to "know how."

-"Using textbooks requires teachers who know both the content and the processes needed to understand the content" (6).

This is a great point. And it is one that is very important to me as a new teacher. I feel very confident in my understanding of my content (geography), but in terms of the processes needed to access it - I am learning. I have high hopes to come up with a firmer of understanding on what reading skills are necessary and how to help students acquire these skills.

-"Readers who engage in an active search for meaning use multiple strategies, including self-questioning, monitoring, organizing, and interacting with peers" (6).

Right here I've started to get a firmer idea of what readers need. Self-questioning I understanding. Monitoring I'd like to learn more about. Organizing makes sense - it would probably be worthwhile to work with my kids on doing outlines of the text. And interacting with peers is good - at least when that doesn't mean hitting and cursing each other (which I seem to need to find a way to avoid). I'd definitely like some more ideas for having my students interact with each other to solve problems, understand things.

Putting it together:

From these ideas, I get the message that learning involves both the content and the strategies for getting the content. Those strategies, I am confident, can be acquired through practice with a textbook, while also engaging with the content. I am excited to try some of these things out with my self-created textbook worksheet lessons.