Reading Text

The subject area that I’ll be doing is Animal science and the content is agriculture based. The textbook to evaluate is Animal Science by James R.  Gillespie. The reading level for the textbook according from WordsCount website was Smog Grade: 9.99. From the website Readability index Calculator it calculated Flesch-Kincaid Grade level  10. On the website of Edit Central the reading level was automated readability index was 45. The Automated readability index was 8.7. The reading level for Flesch-Kincaid grade level was 8.1. The reading level for Coleman-Liau index was 12.5. The reading level for SMOG index was 8.8. The reason I feel like these reading levels are different is because through the years reading has become a subject that is an opinion of difficulty in schools. There are many schools that have higher standards of reading then some other schools have.  For being just a basic knowledge in animal science, I feel like the reading level is perfect for the students. It pretty much at the level that they are in school and some of the scores at a middle school reading level for being a freshmen course.  I feel like the contribute to the difference of the readability level and the assigned grade the textbook is meant for is so that we understand the difficulty of text we assigning to the class. I feel like there a judgment call on if you want higher difficulty of text in the class or having easy text to read in the class. When using the textbook in the classroom, the strategy I would use would be to assign some pages or one chapter to read before class. Then I would ask them questions what they learn and ask see the students if have any question over the text. Another strategy I would use is give them assign some pages or one chapter to read before class. Then have a quiz over the information they learn. I would make sure the quiz was not too hard because know that some of the students have trouble understanding information from the text. Then I would go over the text after the quiz and answer any question that the students might have. In the textbook, I like how they had pictures of all the different breeds of livestock. On each picture of the breed, they would have a brief description over that breed of animal. The book also had great descriptive graphs on grazing systems for livestock.  I feel like this makes it easy to learn each breed and understanding the explanation on how that livestock appearance.

Reading Strategies and History

Hello, Everyone!  I'm Julie Wilkinson and I'm majoring in History.  Reading is extremely important for my field, and students must be able to comprehend what they read.  This can be especially difficult if the student does not find the text relevant or interesting.  It is important to use reading strategies that relate the text to the student and the student's previous knowledge.  Strategies such as the point of view guide allow students to consider the text in new ways.  There are many points of view in history and it is important that students are able to discern them in their texts.  I can also have students write to learn the content, so that they review their thoughts of the content, and organize their understanding.  Another important aspect of history is understanding how to read visual information such as pictures, political cartoons, or flyers used at various points in history.  Using the "getting the most from visual information" strategy, I can have students review the visuals presented and draw conclusions.

Reading Strategies

Now that I began my observations, I have noticed the importance of reading strategies in the Spanish classroom. The teacher seems to incorporate the read aloud strategy in her classes. In one of the classes, the teacher instructed the students to pair up and read a conversation found in the book. This allows them to establish a connection between reading, speaking, and listening in the Spanish language. By reading aloud, students will gain a better understanding of the content. Although the students should constantly use this strategy, it is important for teachers to practice it as well. In order for students to efficiently learn the language, they must be exposed to it through a proficient reader and speaker. As I observed, I noticed that the teacher would read aloud several texts and information during one of her lessons. This gives the students an idea of how to use the foreign language, which allows them to make a connection throughout the learning process. Reading strategies are very helpful in every classroom.

Observing reading in the classroom

I have been observing at Irion County ISD. I observe a sophomore U.S. History class and an eighth grade social studies class. In the sophomore class nobody ever reads out loud. Instead, they all read to themselves and do the worksheets by themselves. This leads to certain students finishing a lot sooner than others and then having nothing to do but sit down at their desks and be quiet. The students that take longer on the assignment are taking longer to read the passage as well as the questions. They also have to ask more questions than the students that read quicker and finish sooner. However, in the eighth grade social studies class they take turns reading their sections out loud. The teacher will choose a student to read then tell them when to stop and he picks someone else to start reading. I have only observed twice but each time the students are motivated so much that they are volunteering to read out loud and asking him to choose them. Once they have read together they answer questions by themselves then discuss their answers with each other to ensure everyone has the right answer when it’s all over with. The students really get involved and they seem to take a lot away from the lessons. This past Friday the students answered questions before they read, about what they thought the statements meant. They were reading a letter written by a southerner right before the election of Abraham Lincoln. They discussed what they thought each extracted statement meant then read the letter together out loud. Each student got to answer a question out loud about what the statements actually meant once they were able to put everything in context. They also read passages about major politicians during the Civil War. They split into groups of three and each group read about one individual politician. When they finished reading they had to state the main points of the paragraph. Then the class as a whole filled out a Venn diagram comparing the three politicians. The students really seemed to enjoy this. I look forward to learning how the teacher motivates them to enjoy reading as much as they do. I have looked online for different ways to motivate students to read and there are twenty-five great ideas on how to motivate students of different ages  at http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson035.shtml.

Field Observations

I had my first observation for the semester this week. I'm observing an algebra II class and the students range anywhere from sophomore to senior. I've already begun to notice that this wide range makes a big difference in the classroom. The teacher however already began mixing up her teaching techniques. Within two classes I saw her implement one-on-one help, math games, notes, peer tutoring, and reading out loud exercises. This might sound hectic but it worked quite well. I think the best part was how interactive her classes were. Talking about the problems and questions out loud helped both the student asking and many of those around them. She also handed out a mixed problem worksheet. This was great because it allowed the students to work on the same type of problem but in several different formats. Seeing the problem in various formats allows the students to deepen their comprehension of the content.

Field Observation

Last week was my first field observation. Although I only observed for two hours and although all I did was observe, I still learned a great deal. The two hours were back to back so I was able to witness the teacher having to teach the same thing twice. I saw that she did almost the same thing in both classes, from what she said to what she wrote. I know that is very important because you want to try and make sure every student is getting the same education. Though this is a math class and though not much was done during my observation, I was still able to recognize where reading strategies could be used and should be used. It being a Geometry class there is plenty of material such as formulas and definitions where reading strategies could be used.  As for the students I was able to identify certain personality types that may or may not be associated with their confidence in their ability to answer a question. As a teacher I feel that although it is hard, you need to be able to shift though the garbage to uncover those who need help. I bet I will learn much from this experience and I am actually looking forward to getting to the part where I get more involved in the classes I am observing.

Reading Strategies 2

I feel that these reading strategies that we have been given are very important in education. I look back into my past and realize that my teachers have used these strategies on me. I have used some of these strategies today. I don't think that some people have been taught these strategies or their teacher didn't explain how the strategy worked. This semester students have already been giving presentations in classes that I am in. My teacher wanted us to summarize, give main points and use the kwl. As students started to present I could tell they did not know how to summarize. They would take the entire book and put it into a slide show. Also they would not speak about what they knew about the topic and what they learned. I feel that teaching these strategies are very important at the earlier levels of education. This will allow students to be able to go through education without problems and get the education they deserve.

Reading and Music

I know it is hard to remember every body's specialties, so as a reminder for the rest of the class, I thought I would say again that I am a math and music major, but I am only observing a music classroom this semester. One point I noticed in the beginning band was that there were some students who had to change instruments for various reasons and these students were the ones struggling most to stay focused and keep up with the rest of the class. For example the percussion students had recently changed from other instruments and were struggling with the different rhythms and techniques that the percussion book required. The teacher had me help and explain some of the rhythms and techniques because I am a percussionist. I used some of the same techniques that the teacher was using, such as teacher demonstration. I found that these worked really well, but the effect was not immediate. All of the children enjoyed this because it was like the teacher was at their level. The students were also very enthusiastic to have a teacher who is "really good at trumpet!" The teacher even shares his faults with them, such as the fact that he is not so good at woodwind instruments such as saxophone. This helps the students to realize that no one is perfect, but with lots of time and practice, anyone can get really good at any instrument. This is similar to reading because, with any subject, having the teacher put themselves on the same level as the students encourages them to continue learning, even when they aren't in school.

Helping Everyone

The other day I was talking to my mother, who is a Special Education teacher at my former High School. We were discussing my classes and we started to discuss this Reading class. We went along talking about some reading strategies and she started to tell me about a science teacher that she now works with. She said it was really awesome and so much easier to work with the teacher because the science teacher was well versed in things such as reading strategies and other tools of learning that came in handy when teaching special education students. This only furthered my idea on the importance of learning new strategies, not only in reading but in other styles of teaching so that we as teachers not only help other teachers out but help our students to succeed in the classroom. My mom  was really pleased that she did not have to worry as much about her students in science and helping them along as the science teacher was already laying a strong foundation for the kids to learn.

Reading Strategies in the Classroom

This week, I observed in my assigned classroom for the first time. I am very excited about the rest of the semester, as my field placement teacher seems like a great educator. I watched as she taught the class logarithms. She used a form of reciprocal teaching in which she demonstrated the process to the class, then wrote problems on the board to work as a class, and finally gave worksheets for students to practice. I discussed my course requirements with the teacher, and we informally began planning when and what I will teach the class. One strategy I think will be helpful for the class is the Questions Game. In this strategy, students will be introduced to a topic in math and given a worksheet. the students will work through the sheet by themselves first, and jot down at least three questions they have on a note card. They will then get with a partner and trade note cards, attempting to answer their partner's questions. Next, time will be given for the students to help each other answer their questions.

Reading Strategies Part 2

Throughout my observations I have seen two different classes. Each class has a different personality. One class is a little louder and it outnumbers the other class. This class requires a little bit more discipline in order to keep the larger amount of students focused on the lesson at hand. The teacher in the class is very effective in her instruction because any work or projects that she has assigned so far has been completed by every student in both classes. There are a few students that fell behind throughout the week but when the deadline for the assignment drew closer, those students did what they had to do and received the assistance that they needed in order to turn it in on time. It took a moment for me to catch on but I realized that the students that fell behind in their work that week were the students that had trouble reading. It all clicked for me right at that moment. I learned that in order for me to be an effective teacher, I must incorporate reading skills in the subject that I will be teaching. If I can improve the reading skills for the students in my classroom, the overall performance of the class will improve not only in my class, but all of the classes that the students are in. I want my students to succeed in everything that they do and improving their reading skills can give them the edge that they need to be great students.

Coacing and Reading Stratagies

Coaches play a very important role in student’s lives as do teachers.  Observations with coaching have shown to be very educational, coaches tend to use posters, flyers and pamphlets to better their physical education program. Being aware of your sport and knowing the key points to how that sport is played, as well keeping up with current events about the sport can be very beneficial to an athletic program. Having good reading strategies are very beneficial when it comes to knowing the body’s Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics and how to teach students how the body performs. I have trouble reading and pronouncing large and strange words correctly, because I did not learn to read phonetically. I plan on teaching my students the tricks and strategies to help them gain the most from their education. When a student has learned the Biomechanics of a movement in sport, they can apply better techniques to improve and enhance the action they are trying to accomplish. Learning good reading skills aids students into being able to research, summarize, and learn new areas to better their education and or sport related tasks.  

Hello all! One thing that I have noticed during my observations is that they have a tendency to use a lot of repetition. The school I am observing at only has one theatre class and they are currently working on their one act show. I’ve seen examples of the reciprocal teaching strategy used where the instructors demonstrated how the text was supposed to be said and the student would then attempt to duplicate the action or try something similar to it. I know that I for sure have done the REAP strategy several times before prior to discovering what this method was. The first time I read a Shakespeare play I had no idea what was being said or what was going on. My teacher then went through with us after we read it and we discussed what certain phrases meant. As we went along we made notes about it then got into small discussion groups to “ponder”what the purpose was that the show was written for. Granted I’m pretty sure that this particular method is not what they used for their one act at Grape Creek High School, it is an effective method to consider none the less.

Reading Strategies 2

One thing that I have noticed from my observation experience (and some past personal experiences, sadly) is that a lot of students do not enjoy reading.  The problem is that they see reading as simply a task to do for school; therefore they do not get motivated to complete reading assignments.  Something that I have seen that tends to work with students is to allow them to choose what they read.  Obviously, this does not work all the time, because there are required materials.  They should be allowed, however, to pick their own reading assignment and have them write some sort of essay over it.  This allows the students to read something that interests them and hopefully helps them to become more motivated all around about reading in general.  Another thing is to have the students read to themselves (as opposed to groups all the time) and find any general questions that they may have within the reading.  When they do this and you can successfully explain the questions and help them to not get discouraged when they do not understand everything that they are reading.

Foreign language reading

My name is Ivanna and I am currently observing at Lee Junior High.  It had never occurred to me that reading would be a big part of teaching a foreign language in junior high.  I figured it would only be required in a literature or civilization foreign class in college.  The Spanish class that I am observing I noticed the teacher has implemented good reading techniques.  An activity that she did was she had the students read a paragraph about a birthday party, she then had the students translate it in their own words.  The students were able to do most of the work by themselves with only minimal help from us. In order for them to be able to accomplish this activity the students had a good background of vocabulary and adjectives in their previous lessons.  They were able to translate it by using the vocabulary they did know and using context clues.  I hope I get to see more reading strategies that will help me in my classroom in the future.

Reading Strategies in the Sciences

One things that I believe can be helpful to students is for them to go through the chapter of the text and find questions on materials they believe to be difficult. Then when they come to class, I should have the students reading questions aloud and thinking aloud to answers in which might address certain difficulties. I believe that as a field of science thinking aloud is one of the main ingredients to being successful at reading the material and comprehending what you are doing. Since my content area of chemistry requires math to be involved then thinking aloud is a great reading strategy for students. Once a student can read the problem assigned and be able to verbally explain what they are doing mathematically then they will understand the material better. This reading strategy is one I believe will be extremely helpful to me in my classroom, but I'm having trouble with other reading strategies. Does anyone have any ideas that would be good reading strategies for a chemistry classroom?

Using Reading Strategies

Hello, my name is Ollie Wilburn. I am nearing the end of my college career (finally!). I plan on student teaching next fall. My main content area is that of History. Before this class I had never really had an understanding of using reading strategies. So far we are not even half way through the class and it is already very evident that the use of reading strategies in an everyday classroom environment is not only helpful but it is also essential.  Being a History teacher there is a lot of reading involved with teaching and learning history. Most students are not going to read at the same level or the same style so it is important to learn different strategies so that we find a way to connect with the students. As a high school student reading a history text it will probably be harder for the student to stay focused and retain what he is reading. Using strategies such as classification, summarizing, fact vs. opinion, among others, will be useful in helping the students find and retain the main idea and other details about their readings. I am looking forward to learning more strategies that I will be able to use in my future classrooms

Ollie Wilburn

Reading Strategies

This week in my American Literature class I realized how many students really do not read for comprehension even at the college level. At the beginning of class my teacher handed out a worksheet with a list of vocabulary words from the reading. I was shocked to discover how many of us had not even bothered to look up those words, especially since the text was written in the 1800s so the words were foreign to most of us. Our professor then had us break up into small groups and define those words in context with the work. Afterwards, I heard a few of the students saying how they actually understood more of the reading. I thought this was a great strategy the teacher used. We were all more aware of the fact that we need to look up things we do not know to improve our comprehension. I would like to hopefully incorporate this in my teaching as a wake up call to my students before they have a test!

Reading and Math?

Hi, my name is Katy and my content area is math. At first I wasn't quite sure how a reading course was going to be very beneficial to me, but just in these first few weeks I have begun to realize how important reading is in every content area. Often times students are given word problem in math and understanding the information given and the question asked are crucial to solving the problem correctly. I really liked the "think aloud" reading strategy introduced in the video. I think it is a perfect reading strategy for me to use in my math class. Having students talk themselves through steps of a math problem is such a great way for them to learn the method for solving it. I will also be doing a lot of "think aloud" when teaching my class. Hopefully when my students watch and hear me work my way through a problem it will make it easier for them when they have to work a similar one on their own. I'm really interested to see all the different reading stratgies out there that will specifically be helpful in math. I think it's really great that our midterm is just a big collection of all kinds of reading strategies. I think that will be so helpful for us as new teachers. I think that it's easy to assume that all students can read well by the time they are in our high school classrooms, but that just isn't the case. We have to be prepared for thoes students who are still struggling with reading, no matter our content area.
*Originally posted as a comment on Feb 6*

Reading in a Foreing Language

So the other day, without ever expecting it, I experienced a prime example of the consequences of bad foreing language instruction. In most high schools it is a requirement to take a foreing language class in order to graduate. Not only do we wait until students are past the critical age to teach them a foreign language in a time when they are more preoccupied with their social lives but we also have many teachers who decide to teach with worksheets and vocabulary lists. Most of the accounts I have heard of people who took a foreign language class in high school go along the lines of, " Oh we did not learn anything in there. We did work sheets and the coach was hardly ever there."  My friend Caylie went to such a school and attended such a class. As she attempted to read the book that I was reading (in Spanish) she pointed out random words of which she knew the meaning but when she read them in a sentence they made no sense to her. She would also ask me what certain words meant but it was difficult for me to define them because they were words whose meaning is arbitrary depending on the situation in which they are used. Learning to translate a list of vocabulary words in order to pass a course does not prepare a student so that he or she will be able to grasp meaning when reading or writing in the foreign language. Words Should be taught in various contents so that the student understands the syntactical structure that the words must abide by as well as every meaning that those words might imply. Teaching words in content also helps the student because contrary to popular belief not every word translates, not every idiomatic expression translates and neither google translate or babel fish from yahoo will give good translations either. There are expressions and words that are unique to language because of their cultural context and if they are not taught along with the situations with which they occur they will be completely meaningless to a student.

Reading Strategies for Math

At first glance the title of my post sounds like an oxymoron to me... But, in just the first month of this class I have learned that there is a huge number of strategies available specifically designed for math classes. This is so exciting for me as a future math teacher because I feel that a large part of students' struggle with math is not understanding what they are reading. They either don't understand the instructions, certain words or phrases, or an entire word problem. Having a list of reading strategies to pull from will be such a great tool to use. When I googled "reading strategies for math" I found an extremely helpful powerpoint created by a lady named Anita Barnes for a National Reading Recovery Conference. Her presentation is directed at math classrooms and has numerous reading strategies and ways to integrate them into your classroom. One strategy that I think is essential to solving certain math problems is "Draw Pictures". This strategy can be extremely helpful in solving area and perimeter word problems.  Another strategy I found was "Context Clues". While this seems obvious and something that comes second nature to many people, it could be very useful to a student who is struggling with something like vocabulary. Learning to pay attention to the context in which the word is in can assist in discovering its meaning.  "X Marks the Spot" is a reading strategy in which the student places an "X" by main points, an "!" to denote new information and a "?" for something that confuses them. This would be helpful in longer word problems to help the student keep track of things when there are so may words. I really enjoyed reading through this powerpoint and hope any other of my math classmates find it helpful as well! Here is the link:  http://www.readingrecovery.org/pdf/conferences/nc05/handouts/barnes_using_reading_and_writing.pdf

Making Connections

To be honest, before beginning this course, I had never even considered contemplating how I would help my students be more successful readers in my future math class. However, through the ideas I have been introduced to, I am beginning to connect the dots. I am regularly reminded of the class I observed last semester. It was a below grade level math class for students who just needed a math credit. If left alone to work through a set of problems, the students would become unfocused and confused. With guidance from a teacher or from me, they knew much more than they gave themselves credit for. I am beginning to see that a common problem for many of them could have been that they did not know how to properly read and comprehend math. This semester, I am excited to try out a few reading strategies with a small group of students to see if they find them helpful. I think underlining key information in word problems will be of great help to them, as well as making notes on the side of equations. For example, writing the equation with words (x^2 > 7 would become "x squared is greater than 7). Through this course and the response I get from the students, I hope to attain an arsenal of math reading strategies.

Reading Strategies

To establish good reading skills get your students, before reading to think about the themes or main Ideas. Help them understand previewing the title, author background material, illustrations, figures. Try to get the students to read through swiftly and try to get the students to answer a main idea question or state the main idea in single sentence. Get them to understand new vocabulary with noticing inexperienced words, phrases, and terms, guessing what they mean, looking at the dictionary if the student does not understand a word. Help  them with summarizing  the writing the main ideas of the reading in their individual words.

Specific Reading Strategies in Observation

One specific reading strategy I observed my teacher doing this week was the Reader Response strategy, which I had chosen as one of my strategies for my midterm already. The format for my teacher's reader response included a summary, a connection to a movie, other book, or real life, two new vocabulary words they learned, and some example of personification, onomonopaeia, etc. It looked to me like the students enjoyed the responses. Making a connection and looking deeper into the story than they usually would really seemed to help them enjoy the novel more. I'm so excited to try this in my own classroom!

Specific Strategy Choices

What are some strategies your teachers are using as you observe this week? Also, as you begin working on your midterm- what are some new strategies you have discovered on your own to be used in your content area? Why will they benefit your students, specifically? This blog is a great place to share links and strategy ideas.

Reading Strategies

Reading is an essential skill in student’s life. Children are trained to learn how to read at very early age and they read with many principles such as reading for enjoyment or reading to earn understanding or basically to know what is occurrence around them. In academic surroundings, reading is assumed to be the innermost means for educating new information and gaining entrance to choice reasoning. In addition, reading is the primary means for independent learning, whether the objective is improving on academic responsibilities, knowledge further about theme topic, or improving verbal communication skills. I consider that the knowledgeable approaches are a very important key for educating booming children, at any period. It is very hard for teachers to make sure that each student comprehends their vocabulary words. I believe this is why teachers need to use grasp strategies, that way they can assist the students understand the words into language.

Reading Strategies

Communication and reading go hand in hand. I feel that being able to speak our language clearly will enable a person to become a great reader. Both of these aspects of students build off of each other. This is why I feel that reading strategies are important for a student to become successful. The two strategies that interest me the most are the "KWL" and summarizing. These two strategies are important to the assignments that my students would be doing in the classroom. One of the assignments would be what the students want to do in the future. This includes college, family, living style and things of that nature. I observed a lesson last semester from my teacher where she incorporated these strategies. She used the "KWL" strategy to get the students on track and finding out more about their future careers. Then she used the summarizing strategy, where the students would give a small presentation in what they found. I feel that teaching my students these and many more strategies will help them with assignments like these. I believe these strategies will also help me in my teaching and coaching career.

Reading Strategies

Since I would like to teach mathematics, I really did not think reading would apply much to my field. However, I am quickly learning that is NOT the case. To be able to be successful in a math class, you have to be able to interpret what problems are asking of you. It is important for students to understand different kinds of reading stategies because what may be beneficial in a history class may not necessarily work in a math course. I hope to be able to show my students that reading is important in my classroom and is something that they do not have to be intimidated by! I know that a lot of students get bored of reading and do not always comprehend the things they have read. I believe it is my job to help change that. If I can show my students that being able to read the subject makes the course much easier, I can hopefully motivate them to work harder in perfecting their reading skills.

Lauren Couch :)

Reading Strategies

As this class progresses I am discovering that reading can and does play a major role in my content area which is math. Though reading is important even in math, I am finding it difficult to apply many of the strategies I am currently learning, I know there are many more to learn. Some of the reading strategies I have come across can be directly applied to math, while some of them require playing around with terminology. So far this class has shown me that as a teacher I need to have quite an arsenal of tools to be successful at teaching to the full spectrum of students. Some students are just more challenging than others when it comes to showing them how reading can be fun, or just getting them to read at all. With reading being so important to a student's growth, it is the duty of the teacher to help in any way possible; well at least that is how I feel.

Reading strategies

I have enjoyed learning about all the many reading strategies. I feel like they will all be beneficial at some point in my career. My personal favorite reading strategy is KWL. I like to think about what I already know (or think I know) about a subject before I read it because I find it to be a good transition. If I do not take the time to focus on what I am about to read then my mind goes back to my everyday thoughts and I tend to get distracted by them. Thinking about what I want to learn helps me to read in more detail and try to comprehend more so than if I simply jump into the reading. Reflecting on what I have just read & thinking about what new information I learned helps me to remember the reading better and allows me to retain the information longer. I know each of my students will have their own personal favorite reading strategy whether they realize they do or not. I hope to show them some strategies they may not have heard of before and I hope they will leave my class a better reader than they entered.

Reading Strategies

Since I am becoming a math teacher I really wasn't sure how I would be able to apply what I learn in this class to my future classroom. However, I'm quickly seeing that I underestimated the amount of reading that takes place in a math class. From the class I observed last semester I am starting to realize that I saw many of the strategies we are learing used on a regular basis. Just becasue we aren't using regular words in math, doesn't mean that reading is not occuring. Reading an equation still requires comprehension same as reading a novel does. Some students, like myself, circle key terms or sections of the equation. Others start with the part they know, and work out the parts the are having trouble understanding, similar to vocabulary words. Discussing things out loud can also help a student think through what he/ she is learning. All of these strategies apply to sentences of english words or a line of variables, links I had never thought about before this class.

Reading Strategies

I am very excited to explore the subject of reading. There are very many strategies out there that can be used to help students read and show them that reading can be fun. One way to effectively integrate reading in the classroom is by first giving students the opportunity to read. I would let each student read a section out of the book to ensure that each student gets a chance to read, even if it's a small portion of reading. Another strategy I would use is assigning groups to read certain sections out of the book and then each group could then give a summary for the class to take notes over. I believe these are some of the best ways that I know of to get students involved in reading. If I can get some of my lower level readers to read even just a little bit, I know that I can use that as a stepping stone in order to get them to a higher level of reading. I hope to learn more effective reading strategies in the future because reading can transform good students into a great students.

Teaching history and reading strategies

Hi everybody! My name is Kayla Butler. I am a Junior at ASU, and I will be student teaching next spring. I have had some experience with teaching reading as a substitute teacher. I have also observed in my parents' classrooms and in the classrooms of teachers in the San Angelo school district. I have noticed a lack of enthusiasm for reading in many cases, especially at the high school level. One strategy I have seen be successful is in-class silent reading. Sometimes in many high school cases, students are busy with after school activities, practices, and responsibilities, and reading for fun is a last priority. In a situation when students are encouraged to pick a book they are interested in and sit down comfortably to read for a set amount of time, I have witnessed more enjoyment in the content of the books. This is a strategy I plan to use in my own classroom. I also enjoy reader responses. I have used these in high school and college, and they have helped me understand what I am reading, so I am excited to see how they will help my students.

Reading Strategies

One thing that I have noticed about the reading strategies is that I use them all or have used them all at some point when I read.  Being in college, I believe that I have gotten to the point where I use my own favorite strategy without even thinking about it, but that is what happens to everyone at some point.  Like I said, I have used just about every strategy that I have read about, but I use the anticipation guide strategy probably most often.  Being a history major, my reading comes mostly straight from text books, and especially for studying for tests.  That being said, I always go into my reading with the mindset that I have some knowledge of what I am studying, but that I can learn from what is in the books.  Obviously I don’t always know as much as I think about what I’m studying but it helps to keep me honest when I read things that I didn’t know.  Understanding and knowing these reading strategies still helps me to this day to get a better idea of how to go into a reading assignment and to get the most out of it; to learn the most from it.

Theatre and Reading Strategies

Hello again, just wanted to say that after learning some of the strategies to use for reading I have been doing them all along.  As a theatre major all we do is read and analyze scripts, so the post it strategy is used everytime so that I may jot down ideas about what to put in my designs, or to ask certain questions to the director so that we have the same understandings about the plays.  And needless to say that reader's theatre is used at every rehearsal until the actors hit the stage.  I will definetly be using these as well as the readers response strategy in order to make sure that all technicians and actors are on the same page so that we can pull off a great production every time.

Welcome to RDG 4320!

Greetings, future teachers! This blog has been created so that you, RDG 4320 students, can ask questions, discuss strategies, and comment on past and future teaching experiences regarding reading in the content areas. Please use this blog as a place to share strategies you are excited to use, as well as those you would like to learn more about. I look forward to reading what you have to say!


(Please include insightful, proofread blog posts of at least 150 words or more)