Final Thoughts

Well if you read any of my blogs thank you and if I bored you I'm sorry but please go back and read and read it again :) JK. There were only 9 chapters so I had to finish with my own thoughts. 

 

Cris Tovani taught elementary school for tens years before becoming a high school reading specialist and English teacher. She is the author of many other books and developer for the Denver-based Public education and business coalition (PEBC). Some of her other books if you are interested are I read, it, but I don’t get it and videotape sets Thoughtful Readin and Comprehending content.

 

I really enjoyed this fun book with some great ideas on how not only to teach but teach you. It seemed to be the theme of all the chapters. Tovani is a teacher that encouraged her students to read and re-read. Tovani thought her students to learn how to turn nothing into something and way too much into an assignment. 

 

 

 

I have learned that you should put yourself on the line "If teachers are going to make the process of reading visible, they can't sit safely at the edge. As older, more experienced readers, they have an obligation to talk aloud about groping for understand or reaching for a genuine reading" Dennie Palmer Wolf.

 

I just read in Reading Rockets on Autism and Comprehension http://www.readingrockets.org/article/36973/ one of our assignments about thinking aloud. If we read to our students and ask questions along the way we can help our students learn how and where to stop and think about the importance of what the write is saying. Like this class we were challenged with challenging pieces of text and ourselves struggle. 

 

Tovani would talk a lot about struggling and continue to challenge ourselves to become better teachers. I must have a reason for reading the piece. There must be something in it that will make my life as a teacher or a person better. If the piece isn’t going to entertain, teach, or improve my life in some way, I throw it out. (Tovani, p.61). 

 

She teaching building on the experiences gained in her own classroom. She does note some scientific evidence but this was from her own hands on experience. She also quoted a lot of her colleagues from different disciplines.

 

A recap of the book:

1. Examples of how teachers can model their reading process for students
2. Ideas for supplementing and enhancing the use of required textbooks.
3. Detailed descriptions of specific strategies taught in context.
4. Stores from different high school classrooms to show how reading instruction varies according to content.
5. Samples of student work, including both struggling readers and college-bound seniors
6. Variety of “comprehension constructors”. Guides designed to help student recognize and capture their thinking in writing while reading.
7. Guidance on assessing students
8. Tips for balancing content and reading instruction.