tovani chp 3-4

In these 2 chapters there were a wide variety of subjects. Tovani went from an industrial technologist teacher who couldn't see how to teach reading, to choosing new textbooks for the classroom. She explains how some subjects have reading that aren't visible on the surface but they are deffinently present. One of the best ways she guides the author is apparent in these chapters and I believe it is the use of the varied topics. If you hate history or love English, then you only need to read a few more pages to get past or to these topics. Tovani keep these reader interested with her anecdotal stories and tips for teachers in these following chapters. Chapter 3 in Tovani's book began with a subject not familiar to many readers or to me. She is approached by a man who teaches a class in industrial technology. He states very firmly that he doesn't have to teach reading in his class and there isn't any reading to teach. I sided with the man immidiately and thought quite similarly in the beginning of this class. I don't always probe for the reading content in subjects or try to figure out how to help teach it. I think this is mainly due to my area of teaching and my grade level. high school, however, is still a place with struggling readers, and no matter how much they may like a subject, how can they learn it if they can't read it? Farther though the chapter Tovani goes on to illustrate more ways of helping struggling readers find meaning in books they don't like or learn new methods of note taking while reading. I felt like I was in the classroom when Tovani was being challenged by the young girl about "asking herself questions she already knew" from the text "Frankenstien". Tovani had to work quick to keep her credit as an expert in the room but also model her thinking to the students. I too worry about keeping credit with the students. I had a college proffessor at Wright State University in Ohio that taught Calculus. He taught straight from the book everyday and did the homework problems just as he was expected to do. One day, however, a student asked him a question about more advanced math. This student was obviously a math major and was quite interested in learning more than the basics from this professor. The professor didn't know his answer and shrugged him off by saying "we aren't working on that, you'll have to find that out on your own". The way he answered it made me feel uncomfortable, like he didn't know anything beyond what he was teaching, and that he had been caught off guard. I don't want to be a teacher like that, I want to be an expert in my field, but also be able to model learning for my students. The next chapter was best summed up in a paragraph on page 40, "give students something to read that is worthy of their time, something that they actually have the potential to understand-and maybe even finding a piece of text that will turn kids on to the content". As soon as I read these words I instantly agreed. When this book even starts on history or anything with social studies I get bored fast. This, however, can be remedied by giving students a piece of the topic that interests them. Current politics in comparison to whats going on in the class can go a long way to keeping students interested. The text suggests supplying students with several books in sets instead of one massive textbook packed with vocab and boring info. In this way the text is more descriptive and detailed about each word and story.