This leads into another story that Tovani encountered with a teacher that kept rereading a book and her lessons became harder and harder because she kept finding new things that she thought the students would need to know. She was becoming an expert and was having a hard time filtering out what was important for the readers to know. She makes up these very helpful sheets for the teachers to filter out what is the most important parts so that they are not asking the students more than is necessary.
She ends the chapter with a piece about how some teachers feel that by telling the students what to look for in the text will dumb the assignment down and the students will only be looking for those specific things. I find this to be true but I also see the necessity of doing this. The students can read through a text and have no idea what they are trying to learn from. So they will either try to hold too much information and will get confused or they will use what Tovani like to call the "reciting voice" which just says the words but doesn't retain any of the information. I can really relate to this reciting voice. I find myself so many times thinking of other things when I am trying to read something. I find it odd that you can be reading text and having a whole other conversation inside yourself about things that are very different. If I knew what to look for when I am reading I would have an easier time with the text. I find this very helpful to understand for my future teaching if I ever have to have the students read something.
She starts off every chapter with a quote from someone and I really liked the quote on this page. "I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander." Issac Asimov. It explains how I would like to be and how I hope my students will want to be also. If you understand things quickly you will be reading faster anyways because you wont have to re-read it over and over.
I feel as though teachers need to have a clear instructional purpose when explaining an assignment or reading a text with their students. It can only help the students to succeed in knowing exactly what they are supposed to do. I do not feel as though this will "dumb students down" at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the goal if the learners could read faster without understanding? I agree with Tovani in her purpose that prepare her students not to read faster but to progress in their reading. Therefore, they can understand the difficult texts. I believe that what we should do, focus, and plan as teachers, and this is what the learners need.
ReplyDeleteI think it is neat how things work. The student went in thinkinking she was going to be a speed reader, but she actually slowed down alot, because if she was reading fast, she was not quite getting all of the information. But now that she is getting all of the information, I wonder how she sees it, does she still want to read fast? or is she ok with where she is in her reading because with her slower reading she is more effective? Hmm
ReplyDeleteThe story about reading speed vs. reading comprehension is a great example for students! Just because you moved your eyes over the words on a page doesn't mean you "got it".
ReplyDeleteI enjoy how the author of your book shares personal stories because it makes it more real and factual. I think most of the students (Including myself) are guilty of wanting to read faster, but sometimes we forget that is not about reading fast, but to understand what we are reading. I am a learner of English and it was always frustrating to be the last to finish reading in class or not to finish at all, but I noticed I got more from the reading than my classmates, so definitely reading fast doesn't always mean that you are a better reader.
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