Until I read this article, I never realized just how
involved reading a text could be. Even
if students are just reading for fun, there are things that a reader needs to
do to completely understand what is being read.
I have always loved to read, so I never have thought about breaking the
text down to its individual parts.
As a
teacher, I am learning that when my students read a selection, they are doing
more than just reading. Pre-reading is
an important concept, and it is my job to make sure that I provide as much information
as I can to help my students understand and integrate what they are reading
into their present educational experience.
In my practicum classroom, the most important pre-reading activity is a
vocabulary sheet. I am trying to get the
students to use the definitions in their text books as opposed to the internet,
because the definitions in the text book are in the correct context to the
story they are reading. During my future
teaching opportunities, I will be looking for examples of pre-reading exercises
that I can share with my students that will help them to fully understand the
text.
This
article has opened my eyes to the possibilities that are available to me to
teach my students to fully grasp what
they are reading. I liked the section
about “Surveying the Text”. I can teach
my students about different things like titles, length of selection, and the
topic of the reading. I can have them do
investigatory exercises about the author and what was happening in the world
(specifically the author’s corner of the world) to help with understanding why
the author wrote what he did.
A
challenge that I face in the classroom is getting the students to talk about
what they have read and what it means to them.
This article is extremely helpful because there are sample questions
that I can use to get the discussion started.
I like hearing what my students have to say about a particular
subject. They usually tell me something
that I haven’t thought of or didn’t already know.
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