I Read It, But I Don't Get It

                  I expected I Read It, But I Don’t Get It to be much different than what it turned out to be. The actual use of classroom situations and students quotes helped me envision encounters that I may have with students in the future, and allowed me to reflect upon and evaluate how I’ve addressed some situations that I’ve already been in. I also wondered whether some of us may be teaching classes similar to Tovani’s in the near future.

               One part of the book that stood out was how students struggle with text. By the time I entered first grade I had no trouble reading and read books as a hobby. It was difficult for me to relate to struggling readers. I didn’t understand how a person can read a piece of text and still have no idea what they are talking about. The book gave me this knowledge and I think it is crucial to helping struggling readers.

              Further, I think it is important to teach our students what good readers do, but we should emphasize that good readers aren’t using all of the suggested strategies all the time when reading. I feel that as Tovani suggested, we should introduce them slowly and one by one.

            A part of the book that I found confusing was the chapter that suggests we should teach our students the “voices”. Usually, I only hear a voice inside of my head when I start reading and later the voice quiets down as my reading speed increases. I still have “conversations” with the text and comment upon it in my thoughts, but there is definitely no voice. However, I understand how using this strategy can make students realize that they should be interacting with the text in their heads while reading in a manner separate from the words on the page.

            Finally, this book made me realize that in the same manner that we can teach readers how to read well by showing them what “good readers” do, we should also be teaching language learners what good language learners do.