I really enjoyed the comparing Gallagher did of knowing the game of baseball you’re your students learning to understand what they read, not just reading it. (And that’s not just because I’m a huge baseball fan!!)
As teachers, I think that we have to step up to the plate (no pun intended!!) and teach our students how to examine and discover the things we teach them. We are responsible in helping to lay the ground work on how this can be done. Something that kept popping in my head was a certain image that I imagine we can all relate too and that we could still observe in many (if not most) classrooms today. We have all had the teachers how made us read a chapter and then answer questions at the end. I might be going out on a limb, but I would have to say that most of us, did not do all the assigned reading and just went straight from the question at the end of the chapter to finding the answer (and there were those times when you would just turn to the back of the book and see if the answer could be found there!). Personally, I was never was taught, in a classroom, how to dig a little deeper and really understand and comprehend what I was reading. And for me, it left me slightly unprepared for the higher level reading and work I had to complete once at the college level.
There is a need for us, as teachers, to get to know our students, know where they stand in terms of reading comprehension and ability, and challenge them to work harder and dig deeper!!
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I subbed in a reading class a few weeks ago where the students had to follow along and read a story out of their books and then answer questions afterwards. While some of the concepts that they where learning by answering the questions where good, that type of experience, like you said, can be easily done without actually reading and understanding the entire text. I think in our day and age it is important for students to become good readers, there is a good chance that some students we have will have parents who can not read. This is something that no matter what a person does in life being able to read will help them be successful.
I agree Valerie. In high school, I was never taught to "close-read," so when I got to college, I felt like the only one who didn't know how to crtique writing correctly. I think it is also important to teach this at a young age and the baseball analogy was definitely helpful in recognizing this.
Though true, there is also a need for teachers to learn from their students as well. We have to dig deep within ourselves to realize why our students simply skim materials in an effort to get the answers without reading. And we need to examine ourselves. Do we do these same mistakes? Don't become a hypocrite... I know I don't read everything assigned and I have valid reasons. If we want to challenge them to "work harder and dig deeper," we need to do the work first and our students should follow.
I can remember going straight for the questions also, then searching for the answers. This didn't help me as much I'm sure, but it's always about the time factor with students. Even now, in college, the students race to get done with the test. Does anyone take their time and enjoy their learning experience. I would like to teach my students to do this.
totally agree!
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