Reading through Chapter 11 of Subjects Matter made me think about what content-area reading was like for me growing up in school. Generally I could understand and analyze a text pretty easily in any subject but physics was always my kryptonite. It was always really hard for me to visualize what the word problems were asking in physics so I could never fully piece the problems together. When the text brought up turning the words we read into mental pictures to better understand a text, I was able to relate and think back to my 11th grade physics class.
A quote from the text that really resonated with me is, “All the great teachers who describe success with struggling readers focus on the essential process of developing students’ trust. In order for students to really put themselves on the line and try something new with reading, they have to trust that the teacher is there to help and be there for them without making them feel bad about their mistakes. With the goal of becoming a teacher, I need to keep in mind that I have to build my trust with each and every student so that they can fully believe that my goal is always to help them achieve everything to the best of their ability. One strategy that stood out, because it was mentioned in both the text and in class, is “think-alouds.” These are important in the classroom because generally my brain can work through a text a fairly easily and I do not even think about the cognitive processes my brain takes to analyze a text. Using a think-aloud, I can help my students think about what is going on inside of my head when I read through a text so that they can then work on thinking about a text in a similar manner. This strategy is definitely not one to forget about when I have my own classroom.
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Physics was also my kryptonite! I had a hard time visualizing the problems, due to the objects involved and some of the vocabulary used. That was one thing that I took away from the readings was that to avoid this, we should try to word our problems with vocab and situations that the students can relate to, so that they can visualize it. Even with relatable vocab, I think that your idea of doing think-alouds is great because it will model to your students how they should read through the problem to determine which parts they should analyze, make inferences about, and which pieces they should pull out of the text to find their solution.
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