I agree with a lot of the points brought up in the Tompkins chapter. For example, on page 236 she highlights factors that affect student motivation; she lists factors that are student driven as well as teacher driven. In my experience, I think that teachers play an important role in modeling positive reading behavior through their lessons as well as behavior. For example, if the children are having a quiet reading time, I think the teacher should be having one too, as it would show to students that the teacher values reading as well (and also that she is not “above them” and engages in the same activities that they do). A student driven factor that I have personal experience with is choice; I loved being able to pick the book I wanted to do my report or project on. Teachers can scaffold this by only providing books that they feel are appropriate, but students are still allowed a fair amount of choice.
Tompkins also discusses comprehension strategies on page 229. I enjoy reading a lot when I have free time and I use many of these strategies when reading for pleasure. For example, I typically make predictions about the book I am reading, connect it to other things I have read, and will sometimes create pictures or visuals while I am reading. On the other hand, when reading for informational purposes I typically have a lower comprehension level (unless I am looking something up on my own accord). Typically this is because the text I am reading are not things I can connect to my own experiences or the content and vocabulary is out of my reach. However, my experiences with these kinds of texts have decreased over the past few years because I am taking courses more related to my interests and I have more experiences to draw from.
I found the Carlisle article interesting because of some experiences I have had at my placement. On Tuesdays I work with the children who are in the lower reading group. I have serious questions about one student who seems unable to read anything independently. I noticed in the Tompkins book (page 239) when discussing capable versus less capable readers, the child I was thinking of was overwhelming in the less capable category (in my “softy” personality I don’t like that description). But it is true, because he is in fourth grade and has trouble decoding words like “wanting” and “decided” – he will often insert letters and say the word in a jumbled way that makes no sense. In the Carlisle article, the author mentions the importance of recognizing children with Learning Disabilities and identifying them. I know that this child goes to a reading resource room, but I am wondering what good it is doing him and if he needs extra intervention. One question I have is how does a person in our position help students like the one I was working with? What are some simple strategies to use to promote his reading development? Or, is it something that is out of our reach.
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I thought you brought up some great points. I definitely agree with you that it's so important for the teacher to model positive reading behavior. I feel that teachers sometimes forget that they need to show proper reading behavior. Yet I would imagine the hardest thing to do is to motivate the child to read. You mentioned how you liked to be given a choice as to what to read or do a report on. Although I think agree that that can be a positive way to engage and motivate children, I think teachers also need to be careful about how the project is structured.
I only say that because I was always one of those students who had to know what exactly to do and I had to have the guidelines. Whenever a teacher let me do my own thing, I sometimes became lost. In that case, I think it all depends on the types of students you have. But I think scaffolding is such an important tool that teachers know how to use.
I, too, enjoy reading when I have free time and I think that had a lot to do with given the opportuntiy to do it in elementary school (and my parents reading to me). Also, I mentioned in my other posting how I can now connect things to what I read and when I'm more interested in a topic, I will do a little more reading on it and take my time to really enjoy it; rather than rushing through the book just to answer questions, which results in me having low comprehension from the reading.
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