What makes a good reader? Am I? Why or Why not?
A good reader is able to read a text, understand it, and get something out of it which they can apply to their own lives or store away as knowledge. The video that Mrs. Harris showed in class could not have done a better job illustrating the way we should teach reading! And it has made me realize something about myslef. I've never considered myself a very good reader, but I'm going to adjust that belief a little now. I AM a good reader in certain subject areas that I know well. In english class, I am a strong reader. I have a lot of knowledge about how to analyze characters, and make connections to the text. This allows me to get a lot of out reading an english-related text. However, in science, history, or math class, I am not a good reader. This is because I know little about science, math or social studies except for that I am requried to know to get around in everyday life. Because I have little background knowledge or understanding of higher math, science and history vocabulary, I must read these texts several times in order to infer the meaning of them.
So, how can I teach students to become better readers?
I can teach and explore other content areas (math science and history) in the context of my reading lessons. For example, I can find a history story, and get my vocabulary words from that story. Or, I can have students read a science article and summarize it, rather than summarizing a short story, etc.
You have very good points about your reading skills, and yes, one thing we need to do is affirmation of ourselves to be at the increase our knowledge.
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