Sometimes I don't like to read though if I will be tested on the reading afterwards. If I am reading to be tested, my mind is too worried about what the teacher might pick to test me on and I can't enjoy or internalize or make connections to the reading. I hated doing book reports in school, I didn't read chapter books when I was in grade school because I was too busy playing with my brothers and sisters, doing homework, and helping around the house. It was hard for me to be motivated to read long books because I didn't like being alone.
I was encouraged to read as a child, but mostly I read picture books because I liked them better and hadn't learned to appreciate novels without pictures.
I think by getting my students interested in different math texts I could foster an atmosphere where they want to read more about math. I could give small shout outs about interesting and different ideas and give references of where they could find the information.
If one of my math teachers had applied math to something I love (like music or cooking) maybe I would have responded and sought out more information on the topics or maybe they did and I just didn't care to do any more homework. I think if I could create a desire in students to want to know more about a topic, they would be more likely to pursue the information because they would "need" to know for themselves. As for the last question in the prompt, "How can you build up your students’ self-perceptions of themselves as readers?"
Any suggestions?
I think that a lot of students have a similar experience with reading to you. I think that because you can connect and understand their emotions with reading, you will be able to better accommodate them. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI think you hit it with that last prompt! Just like you said about connecting math to music, when you connect any content area with something of interest to the students, they will already have a degree of confidence to build off of. And then, as they have multiple encounters with how the two relate, their confidence and perception of reading will increase! Great post!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers have to relate their subject to the interests of the students! It may be hard to be able to reach all students that way, but if we are switching up the way we are doing things the better chance we have at reaching all of our students. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteI agree that students respond to reading much the same as you do. I also love reading but find it difficult when I am under pressure or reading for a class knowing I might be called on to analyze the text. Students confidence in reading will increase as they read more and become better at it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your idea of connecting mathematics to what students like. I wonder if you could present students with different scenarios (e.g., cooking scenarios, music scenarios, farming scenarios, video game scenarios) and then let them choose which one they wanted to address mathematically. This approach would take a lot more time at the get-go, but after you had a base of scenarios you could draw from, your teaching might go a lot more smoothly because you would have a database of high-interest problems that you could draw from, depending on the interests of your individual students.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post Joli! I feel that having a variety of books available can help improve students' perceptions of themselves as readers. I had an experience in my clinical-I was in an esl class and one of the students claimed that he hated reading and complained about a book that his teacher gave him to read. She stopped and just asked what interested him. He didn't really respond so she gave him some different options. He said that the HOlocaust interested him, so she pulled out "Night" by Elie Weisel. She gave a little bit of impromptu frontloading to prepare him for the book, and periodically checked on him as he read. Pretty soon he was deep in the book and would stop and ask his teacher questions about what was going to happen. It was apparent that he cared about the content so he was committed to reading. I hope that I can help my students who struggle with desire to read by giving them choices and playing to their interests.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar view on reading. I don't do well reading under pressure, or if I'm going to be tested on what I read. I think the only books I read from middle school through high school, were ones that were assigned reading.
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