Blog #10

I have always enjoyed reading though I must say, I have never felt quite up to par with the reading level of my classmates. After reading this chapter, I kept thinking about times I didn’t know where to begin solving a math problem or a scientific calculation. I might have known the formulas and I might have been able to identify what was given to me… but picturing the situation or making sense of it all was sometimes a struggle. I didn't know at the time but the teachers helping me understand were content area educators helping a struggling reader.

[Reading Pace Level Zootopia Sloth]

“There’s so much we need to do for our kids, and never enough time to do it all. And yet our close observation of their struggles tells us that to help students understand and learn from the tasks we assign them, we must work with their reading process.”

This to me is wonderful and the book goes on to remind us that no, we may not be a reading teacher but when we help a student mature as a reader in our content area classrooms, we are teaching them “one of the skills involved in learning.” Struggling readers are kinda being cheated from their opportunity to learn. What comes with this job is helping students understand the concepts and how to use the resources provided to them.

Think Alouds are a strategy that could really benefit struggling readers. Presenting live and active thoughts as one reads a passage, picture, or diagram can really model other beneficial reading strategies to readers that do not know what to think about when reading (ex. when the book describes students who have problems picturing an unfamiliar situation). I also agree that it is important to choose materials students can successfully read. If a student is already struggling to understand text, proving materials unmindfully can be rather discouraging for students repeatedly having issues with text beyond their reading level. [324 words]