Part 1 of Torvani’s I Read It, but I Don’t Get It was very interesting to read! Throughout the reading, I marked at many points which I felt related to me personally, and not just as a future teacher. Torvani wrote this book with teachers in mind, yet I find that it’s been very helpful towards me as a reader. In the first two parts of her book, Torvani includes realistic classroom scenarios, personal experience and reflections, and her thoughts of what we should and should not do as a teacher, student, and reader. I was very into the beginning of Part 1 in which she talks about “fake reading.” How she and the students who fake-read is definitely something I relate to. I’ve been fake reading all throughout the school years. Being so pressed for time and thinking that the only purpose for completing reading assignments is to earn a good grade, I spent all my time just decoding words. It was not until I learned about reading strategies in EDCI 3136 this semester that I now know how to read between and beyond the lines. And especially after started reading Torvani, I take reading assignments “more seriously.” Honestly, I’d be so ashamed to admit these details about myself but since Torvani says she didn’t really learn how to read until she was in her thirties, I’m no longer ashamed because I know I’m not the only one. To this day, I’ve always wondered when I was ever going to learn how to REALLY read. Sometimes I find myself panicking because I’m in my fourth year of college, studying to become an English teacher, yet I still don’t have confidence and knowledge of how to read and write on my own. How can I teach someone else how to master reading and writing if I’m nowhere near a master myself in that field? As I read Torvani and learn more out of the 3202 and 3136 coursework, I KNOW that my personal skills as a reader and writer will develop dramatically, along with my skills of how to teach it. Now before I exit this blog, I’ll propose one question from the text that left me wondering (I’ll mention my other questions in class in a few minutes LOL). In Torvani’s section about Real-World Monitoring, I was shocked at Dan’s question that we (teachers) are supposed to know when the students do and don’t understand. I always thought teachers were supposed to, and apparently, as I now understand, that is not the case at all. However, I was left thinking if we are not responsible for ALL or SOME of the students’ reading cognitively, then how and when do we assume if it’s poor judgment on their part or our part? How do we know when to assign retests or curves when the majority of our class fails a test? Does it depend on the content? Does it depend on the grade levels? Does it depend on whether or not we have time to give them another chance, when it’s either our or their fault? How do we know?
Andrea