This week we begin reading I Read It, But I Don't Get It by Chris Tovani. For some of you this is a repeat and for others new. But... Literacy is the cornerstone of closing the achievement gap! At-risk kids tend to have first and foremost a reading gap, rather than an achievement gap.
Read through the first 4 chapters.
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20 comments:
I like this read because I see real application immediately into my own classroom. For instance, her frank discussion on book reports on page 5 reaffirms what I currently do with my own students on sharing how I did not become a “real” learning of mathematics until I was an adult and studied how to teach constructivism. I plan to use this “revealing” strategy particularly with my math lab students.
Page 13, “Even if I knew how to teach reading, when would I do it?” This is exactly how I felt with the last book on ELL. Contrarily, I do not feel at all this way about teaching the reading strategies in my math classroom.
Page 16, “…He loathed the fact that he could no longer breeze through a book without intellectual involvement. He didn’t like it when I asked the class to think beyond the words…” This is exactly how I feel about the constructivists of mathematics. Tim is like the teachers, parents, and students that don’t like CMP (or any other constructivist curriculum). "Just tell me what to do, don’t make me think beyond the algorithm"; it takes great effort and commitment to learn the why’s and how’s of mathematics just as reading for meaning.
Even though this book is regarding strategies in reading, I’m realizing so many strategies for my math classroom. I can’t wait to read further.
My first realization from this book, is that based on many of the things she talks about, I am not a good reader. I don't often have that intellectual involvement with a book. The reason I state this is because one of her primary suggestions is to share with students what you think about when you read, and I don't usually really think readings through that much while reading, but instead digest and process them later.
I do like how she mentions that one of the problems is that what we assign kids to read, may not be worth reading, my biggest problem with this, is that finding on topic, at grade level alternatives can be very expensive in terms of ordering, or in terms of copying, making it more difficult to weed out the dull, than her remarks suggest, like other things, sometimes it comes down to resources.
I did like many of the suggestions she made in chapter 3, and luckily many of these are already embedded into the new science curriculum, so all science teachers are sure to use them to some degree or another. I think her best suggestion is one that we have talked about a lot at Altona, and that is to make sure that students know the purpose of what they are reading. My biggest Aha, maybe that just because kids can decode does mean that really know how to read, the impacts and implications of this will take a little time to sink in for me.
A few tears ago we read the Tovani book as a staff at Silver Creek, and shortly after several of us went to one of her classes. That was a very good experience for me. As I read the book, I kept wondering what she was like as a teacher and how she would compare to the person I imagined. I have to say I was very impressed. When I was reading the book the first time, there were times when I wondered if she was stretching a bit when she related some of her experiences, but I had no doubts about that after the class. She was engaging and enthusiastic and clearly had a passion for her message. I would strongly recommend that you take one of her classes if the opportunity presents itself.
That being said, it has been a good refresher for me to reread the book, especially after focusing on ELL students. The strategies she discusses can be helpful with all students who are reluctant or unsuccessful readers, and I am already trying to think of ways I can incorporate them into my lessons. Although the problems ELL students face when reading might be caused by language difficulties, I think they can benefit from the suggestions Tovani makes as much as other students. When students tell me they are having a problem with their reading, my first inclination is to question their efforts. However, some of her points made me look at the difficulties I encounter on my own. I often feel disengaged and can read for pages without absorbing a word of the material. Just like her students, I find myself 10 pages ahead with no clue as to how I got there. I use some of her strategies on my own now. I try to visualize, I make connections, I ask questions, adjust my speed, and engage in mental conversations with the author and characters. Now I need to make more of a conscious effort to help my students with these same strategies.
One thing that has helped my with this is using the InterActive Reader that we have with our literature books. When we use it, we stop frequently to ask and answer questions, look at difficult passages, examine vocabulary, and predict. I think this book has been a great help with students who have difficulty. It makes the reading selections more interesting. We also do a short introductory activity with each selection, and that helps the students understand purpose.
We also have a unique situation at our school in that we have many novels for the students to look at when they make a selection. In the 7th grade, the students rarely all read the same book at the same time. There are usually 3 or 4 choices, and this increases the chances that they will find something of interest. The biggest problems are when they make their selections on length or what their friends choose. I like to think that they will enjoy the novels more when they select their own, and restore something that Tovani points out is often missing when students read: pleasure.
First a comment on style of this book compared to the ELL book. This book is more conversational, fun to read and engaging. But I am not sure if, for me, that translates to more effectively providing strategies that I will remember to use in my classroom. In some ways, using math terms, the ELL book is the traditional method and this is the constructivist method as far as style.
I was surprised that the content resonated with my experiences in teaching math. I have resistive mathematicians and number callers-- students who choose not to do math and students who understand the symbols and can even memorize the steps, but don't know what it means. In math, resistive mathematicians often become number callers later. Since math is more sequential, the resistive mathematician loses the ability to learn the new concepts and eventually only know the symbols and not the meaning. Since they once knew math, they now try harder, but struggle because there are so many holes in their learning.
Applying the strategies to math are more difficult. For example, marking where you first got lost and why-- unless math problems posed go back to much lower grade level standards, the actual point that the student got lost is not evident to either the student or the teacher. A few years ago, I had my low class go to the AAAmath website and told them they could work on any grade level they wanted. Many thought it was funny to start at 1st grade, but soon moved up grades. Most got stuck at the 4th grade level. It seems like adaptive programs on computers to adjust to the student math level would be a good way to remediate in math. I would love to get an equivalent book with strategies on math.
Page 39: "I had a decision to make: teach the reading or the reader. I chose to teach the reader, trusting that if I focused on process, content would emerge." I think this applies to all subjects-- just substitute for "reading" and "reader" based on subject.
This is a much easier read for me because I feel less intimidated by this topic. I think it is because I have some existing knowledge on the topic of reading(p. 17 Pearson et al -seven strategies).
In Illinois, it is required that anyone with certification in grades 6 - 12 that is a non-English major or minor must take a Reading Content course. Where I graduated from, the course zeroed in on content reading in grades 6 - 9. I had to complete practicum experience over 10 hours in a classroom (I was in a sixth grade classroom) with the sole focus of implementing techniques/strategies regarding the reading of science content. It was an extremely valuable experience to have early on in my teaching career.
This read really made me think about how I became a reader, which is exactly what Tovani starts off with by sharing. I don't ever remember not reading, but I know someone who does - my brother. He has a form of dyslexia where he inverts letter combinations. Learning to read via phonics was torture for him. His third grade teacher tapped into his passion for sports (reflective of Tovani's example on p. 23) and gave him a unique modification on reading/writing assignments. Brent had to read the sports page out loud to us at the dinner table every night, pick one article and write a 4 sentence summary about it. Linking his reading purpose to his passion (Chapter 2) gave him the comfort needed to become a good reader.
p. 24 "They tend to think everything they read in a textbook is important." Here is my Aha! reminder from this reading. My students don't need me to give them all the information at the end of an assigned reading but they do need me to guide them at the beginning and they go through it to understand the purpose of the reading.
A loaded question here at the end... Why do we put every kid in an SSR class randomly, when we know that many of them aren't reading up to grade level? Would there be a benefit to sorting them out by reading ability? The reason I ask, is that I always see the good readers reading and spend a huge amount of time policing the fake readers. It makes reading more antagonistic for the fake readers. I think much of the resistance to reading might be due to the fact that our kids are much like the examples Tovani is sharing. Is there a better way to construct SSR? How have different grade levels approached this time?
I feel like I have an advantage in that I have been using Strategies That Work (Stephanie Harvey) for 7 or 8 years. It is the elementary/ middle school version of this book. When I first read the strategies book I was blown away with the introduction to what I am doing when I read, that is making connections, inferring, etc. I spend time every autumn going over those strategies using picture books, as is recommended. Having the tools from the Harvey book and knowing how successful they are, make me excited to be able to go to the next step.
I am seeing posters of "How Do I Know I'm Stuck " in all the English classrooms! How terrific to have all this broken down in a usable format.
Like Victor, I read this book a few years ago and took Tovani's workshop. I am going to attend her two-day class this summer as well, Reading to Remember, that will be held in August (worth one credit!). She is a wonderfully engaging speaker that is worth the time and money if you haven't seen her before. FYI!
I relate to the way Tovani shares personal stories about her own learning with her students; I always felt that the kiddos engage much more when you are human with them and allow them into your head in a professional manner. Discussions with them about how I read--what the conversation voice is saying-- while modeling think alouds were great. Even though reading comprehension has always come easy to me and was therefore somewhat difficult for me to teach, Tovani breaks it down into succinct chunks, along with the strategies and confusion signals (p.38) that made addressing them in class much easier. This stuff works! :)
Again, I highly recommend seeing her in person. I remember being blown away by the "reading with a purpose" activity described on pages 25-26 when she had us complete it-- very fun and enlightening!
So far this has been a very interesting book. It is easy to read and I really like the examples given. She makes it very clear that we as teachers need to teach our students that there is a purpose for reading and how to have a purpose. It is not going to happen without help. I can relate to the thinking out loud to make the comprehension more concrete. I talk to myself and think out loud all of the time. It helps get the process and ideas into my head. All of the strategies are great and I can see myself using them in my Lang. Arts classes. I will have to spend time teaching them how to have a purpose and model the thinking out loud strategy and others.
I thought that the section on “How Do I know I’m Stuck” and the next ones after that hit home with me and my expectations of the students when I just tell them to read. I know that some of them just got lost and confused and never said a word to me. I will be using some of these ideas with my son as well to help gain comprehension.
So far I would have to agree with the general consensus- that this book is fun to read. What I’ve found fun about this book is that Tovani describes numerous classroom experiences as well as her own.
I thought some great points were addressed. Breaking down the defenses goes right along with making reading enjoyable- trying to teach students that they can read for enjoyment can be a great obstacle- especially when they are the resistant readers that she mentions. I thought her strategy- having each student write on a note card about how one book was important or impacting, and then having the students present this information, was a great idea. It helps get the resistant readers to tap into their quality world- allowing them to discuss what they find interesting, and using what has potentially provided them with fun and enjoyment to break down their defenses, and help show them that reading is not so bad after all.
Focusing on what good readers do well is also a great strategy- she gets her students to see that, by essentially discussing other times when it is good learn from others who are competent and established at a specific skill.
I cannot agree more that literacy and reading is not only the number one priority, but it is every teacher’s responsibility to teach literacy and help students with reading. Chapter 4 had some great strategies for reading- thinking aloud (and discussing comprehension with others), marking text- which, tying back into our previous book, is also great for grading purposes, and using the double-entry diary. I have never seen this strategy, but it makes a lot of sense. The use of a comprehension constructor also makes a lot of sense, especially combining multiple strategies.
I agree with the consensus so far that Tovani is easy to read, enjoyable, full of interesting strategies and illustrations for those concepts. I also totally relate to Tovani’s observation on a student who thought “It was easier to make his teachers responsible for his learning. He was used to sitting in class and being told what to think” (p.16). Of course, she was using this in reference to reading, but I think one of the major problems with students in general is this exact issue – they don’t want to or don’t know how to problem solve, use creative thinking, connect with the subject, or construct meaning. I see it all the time in my classes, obviously not with reading, but with using any higher level thinking or problem solving skills at all.
Engaging students is a huge step in the right direction, and it is obvious that Tovani is full of passion for her field, relating to her students in a way that gets them interested and engaged – perhaps an unwritten strategy that should be considered as well as those she proposes specific to reading.
However, I do wonder about all the processes Tovani proposes. Since there is very little actual reading that goes on in my classroom, I can’t speak from much personal classroom experience, but I wonder about all the strategies she details to help students comprehend what they read. Is there so much that it would become overwhelming, even more confusing than the initial reading assignment, perhaps boggling them down rather than boosting their understanding? I know that reading for learning can be very different from reading for pleasure (without which there is no life!!!!), and I know this is just my quirkiness, but if I get turned off by constant interruptions, stopping and starting, over-analyzing, etc., causing me to lose track of what I am attempting to read, would it not happen with others as well? I guess those of you who are more involved with reading in the classroom will have to attest to the effectiveness of the strategies for me!
I have to also agree with the mass. Tovani's book is not onloy an easy read but with her stories filtered throughout she gives you a capsulized "real" picture of her experiences. I think it is amazing to have the teacher share their struggles with students and become the learner. What a message is that!
I liked her quote, "good readers have purposes other than pleasure for their reading." I interpret this as giving permission to enjoy reading for more than fun, but also academics, attaining information/knowledge, etc.
I also appreciated the declaration that teaching reading needs to continue throughout a student's education.This is not a skill that should be taught only in Elementary School but needs to continue.
I liked that many of the thoughts presented in this book are common sense, everyday thoughts that should be used as accepted practice.
I like the way Chris shares her experiences with her students. She doesn't ask them to do anything she hasn't done or experienced in the classroom associated with reading.
Having her students make a connection with reading not only by them reading but, " through books they may not have read but have had read to them."
She emphasises the importance of modeling her strategies and student reading assighments. Continually demonstrating how reading positively impacts the student's behavior toward reading.
We can successfully apply her reading strategies to all aspects of our classroom enfironment.
What the students need to know are the strategies that will help them. P. 5 says, “a strategy is an intentional plan that readers use to help themselves make sense of their reading.” What works for one, may not be the best for another. On p. 15 it gets into the question, “I read the words, but what do they mean?” I personally like Montaño’s T-chart paraphrase. When they can put it into their own words, they can internalize the meaning, then they can go back and memorize whatever it is they need to learn (Mark Anthony’s speech - which I had to do as a freshman, the preamble to the constitution – which I learned from schoolhouse rock, etc.). Tovani’s double-entry diaries come on p. 30, but I still like Montaño’s. P. 26 mentions the think alound. While I may do this as a reader myself, it is hard to model. Even when I read aloud to the students, I would tend to ask them questions that to think aloud to show them how the process is supposed to work. They need the strategies and they need to be taught how to use them. Once they are in their repertoire, they need to decide to USE them.
Students in a math class are not an exception when it comes to reading and learning comprehension strategies that can help them solve math problems. In fact, I spend a fair amount of time each year trying to teach math students how to read a story problem and eliminate excess words and focus on key words which will help them get to the meat of the math problem. Many times when a math student told me they didn’t understand what the question was asking I would have them read it to me aloud. Just by reading to me aloud and hearing what they just read the student was able to clarify the question and say “oh, I get it now.”
It has been my experience, especially working with partially proficient students that many of them ultimately want the teacher to read the math problems to them and then have teacher explain what was just read, without exerting any effort on their part. They have already told themselves that they won’t understand the problem so why try reading it. Thus, I feel that helping students recognize when they are losing concentration abilities in their reading would be beneficial. The six signals mentioned on pg. 38 are excellent ideas that can be taught to all students. Even as adults we all have problems with the camera shutting off or our minds beginning to wander to what we wish we could be reading instead of what is currently in front of our eyes. Teaching students effective reading strategies for concentration is critical.
I really agree with what Kathy said regarding reading in math. So often I see students who automatically shut down and don’t even begin to try the work if the directions or information given is more than two sentences. Their hands immediately go up and their brains turn off, and they wait for me to come by and tell them what to do. Somewhere along the way they have learned that it is much easier to wait for the teacher to do the interpretation instead of struggling through the process themselves. (As an aside, I wonder how much of this is related to “Nation of Wimps” type lives they live…if everyone is rushing in to fix things for you, or to protect you from feeling bad about your abilities, do you ever learn the strategies needed to work through difficult tasks?)
I really enjoyed when Cris shared with students about times in her life where she didn’t like reading or struggled with reading. I have done this on many occasions with my students and they are always so shocked to hear from a teacher that a particular topic or skill does not come naturally to them. I think it really helps those struggling students to realize that everyone struggles sometimes and it’s the strategies we use to get through the task at hand that make us ‘good students,’ and not just some mysterious natural ability that they will never possess.
I am really excited about this book. Even more so than with the ELL book, I am taking notes not so that I'll have something to blog about, but because I'm discovering lots of strategies and ideas that I can't wait to use in my classroom! In Chapter 1 I liked the "Important Book and Literary Histories" activity, to help the kids realize that reading has in fact been an important - and exciting - part of their lives. I learned and used a similar activity in the "Teacher as Writer" class, called "Writer's Timeline," wherein the kids brainstormed about various memories and ways that writing and reading have shaped their growth, from having parents read to them to spelling out words with magnets on the fridge.
Tovani does an excellent job of showing why it's so important to help students create a purpose for reading, to make sure they have sufficient background knowledge to make connections, and to model using our own experience. Heck, just now when I was having trouble signing in to this blog, I found myself merely "decoding" because I didn't understand what "caches," "cookies," or "scripts" were in that context. When we simply break down our own defenses enough to share our trials as readers and show the kids that they're not alone, that makes a big difference.
Chapters 3 and 4 are packed with ideas that I plan to use in my room. These include the "House" activity for showing the importance of purpose (p. 25-26); thinking aloud; using pink and yellow highlighting to help kids focus on what they already understand and which parts are confusing them; discussing the "reciting" vs. "conversational" voice in my head; posting the Six Signals (page 38); DEDs and comprehension constructors (I've done some of these, but the tools offered here will really boost my efforts). My only concern, as someone (Kathleen?) mentioned, is getting carried away and trying to throw too much at them at once.
Coding and marking text is a great strategy; one of my favorite moments in my long teaching career came when, after we had modeled and practiced using post-its to track our thinking, I observed one of my struggling (and ELL) readers using this strategy on his own during SSR time. I must admit, though, that as I've been reading the 7th grade novels this summer to prepare for my new position, I have not been marking the text. I plan to track my thinking more as I read more of the novels, and then share and model my experience with the kids in the fall. (Don't worry Victor, I'll use post-its and won't mark in the books!)
When I read the section “I Read The Words but What Do They Mean?” a recent experience with a student came to mind. He was working on a design brief in Tech class and not getting much done. When I checked in with him to see how his work was coming along, I got the “I don’t get it” response. I asked him to read the instructions for the segment of the project he was working on, which he did, and then I asked him again to tell me what he needed to get done. He replied that he still didn’t “get it”. I asked him if there was any word in the instructions that he specifically didn’t understand, and it turned out that the word “eliminate” was the thing that was throwing him off. Once he looked up the word eliminate and we discussed the definition that was applicable to his assignment, his face lit up and he was ready to get to work. Based on this and other experiences along the same lines, I think that vocabulary building is a critical skill for all students. I think that too often we assume that students know the definitions of the words that we use and take for granted every day, and if we spent more time helping students increase their vocabulary that it would really help them out a lot with their reading comprehension. This is why I started posting a “word of the day” as a warm up assignment in Tech class so that students would take a moment at the beginning of each day to focus on learning a new vocabulary word. It only takes a few minutes for them to look up the word online and write down a short definition. At the end of the semester, they have added dozens of new words to their vocabulary, and they have fun discussing it in their lab groups as they compare the words that I have put on the board for them to look up with other teachers that have done the same thing in their classrooms as well, which I think is a fabulous way to reinforce learning in a cross disciplinary way.
I read this book in one of my education classes in college, but having now spent time in the classroom, I’m getting a whole lot more out of it; it especially resonates in light of the Montano training in seeing what an important issue literacy is across the curriculum.
In the “Fake Reading” chapter, I related a lot with what Tovani was saying about kids pretending to read. This was especially the case in SSR last year. A bit of an “ah ha” came on page 7 when she related why some kids merely pretend to read: they believe that they are either born good readers or not and there is no hope for change. Explicitly addressing this fallacy next year, especially in my lit lab will be an important place to start in combating “fake reading.”
As she moved into the chapter “The Realities of Reading,” I found her categories for struggling readers interesting. I could easily think of specific students who would fit into the categories of “resistive reader” and “word caller.” I also appreciated her brief explanation of just what a complicated process reading really is as it combines a variety of cueing systems. These are things that, as good readers, we unthinkingly take for granted.
It really started to get good though as Tovani talked about what we do in light of all of this in Part 2.
The purpose for reading idea is one that Jeff really stressed with me first semester, so I never give a reading assignment without explaining to my students the purpose for reading. Students did very well with this; however, I found the challenge to be towards the end of second semester when they began to have to set their own purpose for reading. I need to think about how to teach them to do this well. It takes a lot of time and practice.
I also ask my students to mark up the text on a regular basis. The difficulty in this is helping them understand HOW to choose what information is important. I realized that I need to model this more often than I did last year. Also, I like that Tovani asks them to mark different things in the text with different colors. I think that could really help some kids who are visual learners.
In chapter 4, I really like Tovani’s six signals to help a reader know when he/she is stuck. I will most definitely be using those to help students this next year. Knowing that they are not getting it is vital to them being able to get “un-stuck.”
One glaring point I would like to make comes from page 19—under the subheading, "Shouldn’t They Have Learned This in Elementary School?" One teacher that Tovani quotes noted that out of her 22 students, only 8 could read their science textbook. In our school district, students do not have even one textbook before sixth grade, so of course they would not know how to read one. (Altona is an exception because our fifth graders had the advantage of textbooks for science and social studies bought by Joe that they would NOT have had at Eagle Crest.) We take it for granted that if kids can read (decode words and understand most of them) that they can read a textbook. This is simply not true. Unfortunately, it falls upon the middle school teachers to not only teach the content in textbooks, but show kids how to use them and take notes from them in order to learn and understand the content.
The double-entry diary made lots of sense with me as a teacher of mathematics. I think that would be an extremely valuable tool for students for learning not only new math vocabulary but also connecting new skills with prior knowledge and articulating confusion so that I could do a better job of intervention. I get extremely frustrated when kids just say, "I don't get it." I need to know exactly what they don't get in order to help. With only, "I don't get it, " to go on, I would need to start the entire lesson over. If the kids used a double-entry diary and wrote, "I think this means.." or "I am confused by.." I could diagnose the problem better.
I also love that Tovani pointed out six specific ways to identify that you are "stuck." A lot of the time, kids (and adults) probably don't even realize that they are not comprehending what they are reading.
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