Final Reflection

I really enjoyed this class, although I think the class time is to long most of the time. This class, along with Principles of Teaching, were my two favorite classes this semester, which is a relief because I usually find my education classes are a bit of a waste of time. I love that Dr. Pytash read aloud in almost every class and I'll definitely have to read at least some of those novels. I liked being introduced to different reading strategies and will definitely use at least some of them in my future classrooms. I can't wait until I can help students find books that they enjoy and seeing their faces light up when they get involved in a story because I feel like then I'll be a successful teacher.

Chapter 14: Finding the Right Book

This chapter had a lot of information in it about helping students finding books they like to read. Beers gives tips about finding great fiction and non-fiction books. She again stresses that students learn about reading by doing it, not just learning about it, which is why having SSR or going to the school library is so important. I really liked her suggestions of having a "good books" box and found it really interesting. That seems like a great to figure out what types of books reluctant readers enjoy, as seen in the example with the girl who always choose mysteries. I really enjoyed this chapter and loved George's little crack at the end.

Chapter 13: Creating the Confidence to Respond

This chapter is about increasing student confidence so that they are willing to learn. While we may admit that a text is hard, we shouldn't say to our students that it's so hard we'll skip it. I think that we should be realistic about our texts and tell our students something along the lines "Yes, this text is pretty hard. But if we work together, I'm sure we'll be able to handle it." Something that tells the student, yes, this text is hard but it's not unattainable. Also, another important section was about making sure the students know they belong. The teacher and the students should know each others' names because this help creates a sense of familiarity. As Beers points out, it's easier to critique negatively the unnamed student, but when we know that kid's name is Joe, then we are more likely to realize that this student is a person as well and deserves respect. Beers also stresses the importance of connecting students with the right book. While a student may have a positive attitude toward reading but don't seem to read a lot, they may simply have not found a book that interests them.

Chapter 10: Fluency and Automaticity

This chapter mostly concerns itself with, as the title suggests, fluency and automaticity. Automaticity, in this situation, is when students can recognize a majority of words with little or no problems. They have seen the word so often, they see it as a whole and not in separate units, as seen in the example of /window/. Fluency comes out of automaticity and is when a reader is able to read the text smoothly and at a good pace with good phrasing and expression (i.e., not in a monotone with tons of pauses). This ability develops as students begin to recognize more and more words and don't have to spend time sounding out the word. Beers also discusses how to measure fluency, such as oral reading rates which is not always useful, simply because there are so many different factors that can affect the student's reading, such as the content. Obviously, since the content is new and may be more difficult, most people will not be able to read it as fluidly as something they have read before. There is also the silent reading rate, similar to that "test" we took in class where we read a passage, counted the number of words we read in a given time, and then recalled information from this passage.