Tovani on Strategies to help reluctant readers

Reading Cris Tovani this week in I read it, but I don't get it; I have a better understanding of what is happening inside the heads of reluctant readers. I can also see that simply asking students to re-read isn't too helpful to them. Just like sounding out the word is only one of many strategies to teach word identification; re-reading is only one of many strategies to help students develop their reading comprehension. Tovani tells of her own experience with her fifth grade teacher, " We were doing fractions, and I was struggling to learn how to find common denominators. After many incorrect attempts, I asked for help. My teacher knelt down beside my desk and through clenched teeth said, " Think harder! Thinking harder about something that I didn't understand was a strategy that I couldn't sink my teeth into, and neither can my students"(Tovani, p.50) If our students aren't comprehending what they are reading they need alternate methods of how to understand better. As teachers, it is our responsibility to demonstrate and model how we read for comprehension and guide our students until they can begin to comprehend more fully and independently. By teaching our students how to make predictions, connect text to your real life and retell, we are helping make connections for students to read with better meaning.

Literacy Week 4

Writing Essentials Chapter 2:

All students, especially those who begin school with limited literacy skills, need to think of themselves as readers and writers, see the processes as meaningful, and have positive attitudes about literacy before they can successfully engage in literacy practices? (p. 34). How do you respond to this quote? What connections can you make between this quote, your field placement, and/or your own experiences?

Do students need to think of their reading and writing processes as meaningful and have positive attitudes about literacy before they can successfully engage in literacy practices?

In the past decade, the teach to the test mentality of teaching writing has been my three children's' experience in elementary school. They were taught the Six Traits of writing, scripted, expository,and persuasive paragraphs. Somewhere in the middle of all this emphasis on writing; we gave them journals, books and fostered a love of reading and writing from the beginning of their lives. All three of my children see themselves as writers and write creatively on their own. How can I translate my experience to have some perspective of what a student with limited literacy skills must go through to feel successful as a writer? In my dyad classroom, we have quite a few ELL students in the class. I see them in various stages of reading and writing. I can see their struggle and I can only imagine how long it would take me to learn the nuances of their language and to try to write in a non-native language.

I can see how engaging my ELL students in writing to someone or about someone or something they care about would engage them more fully. Routman says that" if students write for readers they value, if they put their minds and hearts into their work; if they are able to choose their writing topics...they will become lifelong writers."(Routman, Ch 2, pg 34) In my own field placements I can see how true this can be. When students get to write about a "just right" book that they have chosen, they are more engaged in their writing. Some can't wait to write a book report to share with the rest of the class. Having more choice in topics that have interest to them seems to be one of the keys to getting them to enjoy their writing much more and become more successful writers.These kinds of experience build confidence in their writing which in turn, helps them to find the writing process a bit more fun and enjoyable the next time around.