Tovani chapter 1-2

The book "Do I really have to teach reading?" starts with an anecdotal story from the author, a female English teacher. She recalls a reading content lecture where she was to help a Biology class with reading strategies. In this class she was already expected to be boring and it was until the author, Cris Tovani, thought of reading the Biology textbook in a different way. The author describes in the first chapter a new look at reading and understanding content. Any subject can be exciting to teachers who pick that area and are gifted at studying it. These teachers, however, do not always know how to excite others and inspire them to study it further. Cris even says herself that she struggles to find meaning in Biology past the "get the grade, go to college" mentality. She finds meaning in Biology in the real world from a simple man sneezing on a bus. Simple things like sneezing spread germs and germs are dangerous if you know what they are and how they work. But they can also be exciting to study and learn about if you know where to look. The chapters on Virology in a Biology book are a great place to go and this is exactly where she points to for herself and the students she teaches. The second chapter focuses on problem students in an English class. They struggle to find meaning in a simple reading. English isn't always the easiest subject to study and one of the best ways to approach it is to ask why it matters. According to Cris, asking what you can relate the story to is one of the best tactics. One of the problem children who berates other students' answers was placated by this tactic and began busily working. Cris suggests a new approach to learning, one that doesn't involve grading, but rather focuses on ungraded work that encourages self reflection.