Show them how you became a good reader.

Of the books that I have read so far during this vacation, I have been most struck by the thoughts of Cris Tovani, a reading specialist and classroom teacher who wrote I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers.  I knew it was going to be a good read; this is one of those rare cases where the good cover and title were as good as the content of the book.  Her writing is easy to understand, as she shares her personal experiences in real classrooms, describing students who we will easily recognize in our own classes.

This is a relatively short book, with its 107 pages that bring excellent lessons without being too 'preachy.'  Each chapter starts with a short vignette, followed by a thorough review of the comprehension strategies used in the scenario, and then capped by a summary of specific techniques and suggestions for their use.  The introductory pages and the final chapter lay out Tovani's particular beliefs (beliefs which are supported by scientific evidence in numerous scholarly studies on reading comprehension):

"Teachers don't have to be reading specialists to teach comprehension strategies.  Teachers simply have to be aware of their own processes as readers.  They can notice their own thinking as they read, determine what they do to make meaning, and pass these techniques on to their students"

The main content of the work describes those techniques which have been shown to help students become better readers.  These are reading strategies, which in another book (Daniels and Steineke, 2011) are defined as intentional, flexible, and adaptable plans that enable readers to construct meaning.  Cris Tovani is a strong proponent of strategy instruction, which is (explicitly) teaching students how to use reading strategies.  This is in contrast to some other authors who suggest that the reading strategy be integrated within content-area teaching.  Such authors prescribe lessons where the reading strategy instruction is not explicit: the name of the strategy, the various specific steps, and the associated thought processes and writing, are not the goal of the lesson, but rather the learning of the topic is the ultimate objective.

As much as this latter philosophy (strategy embedded in the content-area lesson) can easily be rated as more efficient and time-saving, I continue to be a big fan of explicit instruction in reading strategy.  When this explicit instruction is given, and when the skill is learned by the student, that new skill can be applied to other reading tasks in other courses.  What becomes a discussion point is, '"Who should teach these reading strategies?"  We all should.

My anxiety begins again.  (Read about it in my previous post.)  The idea of content-area teachers as reading instructors will upset the already-harried teacher.  This upset is a necessary step, for the conscientious educator, as it will be seed for questioning what one can personally do, as a professional teacher, to improve one's work (and improve students' skills).  A professional educator cannot continue to do exactly the same thing in the classroom and expect improvement in student skills.  I suppose this is the intent of the Middle States reaccreditation; improvement in students' skills requires improvement in teachers' skills.

But just as students go to school to learn, so must teachers 'go to school' to learn.  And unless it's public school, one has to pay the tuition to attend.  More on that later on.

Works Cited:

Daniels, H. and Steineke, N.  (2011)  Texts and lessons for content-area reading: With more than 75 articles from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, Car and Driver, Chicago Tribune, and many others.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Tovani, C.  (2000).  I read, but I don’t get it: Comprehension strategies for adolescent readers.  Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.