Reading Reflection 5

Tovani’s chapters 5 and 6 emphasize the need for teachers to provide clear purpose and expectation for content readings. By informing students beforehand on what they ought to be looking for, they are able to understand the reasoning behind what they are reading and why they are reading that specific content. Often times when students read without a specific purpose in mind they begin to skim the content, not truly processing what is being read. Providing purpose also allows students to practice different reading techniques that will help them synthesize specific information from the text, a skill that is necessary in all occupational and educational fields. 

I believe that Tovani’s reasoning can be applied to all content areas and all types of assignments. Many times students become exhausted with doing arduous worksheets and readings, I believe it is important for teachers to emphasize the purpose for ALL assignments in order to alleviate this frustration. With a concrete purpose or end goal, students are more likely to engage with the material. 

Reflection 4

Reflection 3

1. What was the chapter about?

2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students

3. Can this chapter be applied in your content area?

This article focuses on the need for read alouds in classrooms of all age ranges. Read alouds are designed to promote student community as well as literacy learning. Many students, especially with lower reading levels, struggle so much with the actual decoding of the text that they are not able to take the time to comprehend what they are reading and fully immerse themselves in the imagery of the text. Along with fostering creativity and imagination, read alouds allow the teacher to model the correct use of syntax and grammar, enabling students to feel more comfortable with their own abilities to read aloud. A quote that I particularly enjoyed form this reading comes from Joseph Bruchac, “You begin to sing a song and when they know it, they begin to sing it with you.” This statement can be applied to all disciplines of education with no exception to reading. Once students feel comfortable with what is expected of them they are more willing to confidently participate in activities. 

I believe that read alouds should be implemented in the foreign language classroom as well as other common core subjects. Pronunciation and syntax are essential in the acquisition of a second language, two things that can be modeled and learned through the process of the read aloud.  

Reflection 3

Reflection 3

1. What was the chapter about?

2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students?

3.Can this chapter be applied in your content area?

1. Chapter 5 of “Subjects Matter,” explores different strategies to promote student engagement in varied content readings. Daniels and Zemelman break down these strategies into five organized categories: Showing kids how smart readers think, activities that prepare students to read, helping students process ideas as they read, guiding students to reflect and share ideas when they are finished, and learning vocabulary. 
2. This chapter provides detailed instructions on 23 different teaching strategies in order to help students internalize what they read. The chapter emphasizes the importance of actively instructing students how to use the presented strategies. It is important for teachers to model the proper way to execute each of the strategies in order to provide students with clear and concise expectations. While working through the text it is essential that students are able to visualize, question, and make connections within the text.
3. All 23 of the provided strategies are very helpful and can be used across content areas. One strategy that I think would serve as a formative assessment as well as a way to allow students to reflect on what they have learned, are the Exit Slips. These exit slips can be as simple as a piece of scrap paper that on which the kids write down two of the main ideas discussed in a cultural reading. It is very important with the new teaching evaluations and common core objectives for teachers to integrate reading comprehension as well as assessments into lesson plans. I believe that these exit slips knock out both of these tasks while promoting student achievement! Go exit slips!

Website Review

ZacharyJones.com is a website created by Spanish teacher Zachary Jones, designed specifically for the Spanish content area. The website is very easy to navigate and is open to all students and teachers, no log in necessary. 

The website is very easy to navigate and is separated into three different categories; Zambombazo, Photo Vocabulary, and Trocitos Gráficos. The Zambombazo portion of the website features popular Hispanic music, film, photos, and literature. Students are able to explore Hispanic popular culture from all over the world, promoting relevancy and interest in Hispanic studies. The Photo Vocabulary section displays a “palabra del día” (word of the day) each day along with a corresponding photograph of the word. These photos are updated daily and are chosen from the top photographs from the day, exposing students to photography as well as allowing them to connect the new vocabulary to a hard image. Trocitos Gráficos displays a plethora of flyers, posters, newspapers, and articles about cultural events in the Hispanic world. ZacharyJones.com is such an awesome tool for students and teachers alike to explore the Hispanic world that we study. The site is packed with information that is updated daily, allowing for all kinds of inquiry based activities. Although the website is free to view and utilize in the classroom, their is also a store section of the website that allows teachers to purchase a variety of Ebooks pertaining to grammar and culture. I would recommend ZacharyJones.com to all Spanish teachers!

Reflection 2

1.     Chapter 3 and 4 of Tovani’s “Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? ” discuss multiple ways of integrating reading development into non-literary disciplines. Chapter three focuses on reading within the industrial tech and math classrooms, both of which do not require your traditional form of “reading”. Tovani encourages these special area teachers to make reading meaningful to their classrooms by focusing on reading materials integral to their own content areas.

2.     In chapter three, Tovani presents different strategies and ways to integrate “required reading” within a variety of classrooms. For instance, in the industrial tech class, which requires very limited textbook readings, she emphasizes the importance for these students to be able to read blueprints and directions that many non-vocational students do not possess the skills to decode. Although it is not always apparent, reading is practiced in all content areas. Experienced teachers are extremely familiar with their content areas and often forget to break down their thinking and reading processes for students who are not as comfortable with the material. Teachers should take the time to model reading comprehension for their students.

Reading and decoding are two very important skills in language acquisition. Although the bulk of lower level Spanish pertains to the building of basic vocabulary, it is important for students to be able to recognize cognates as well as understand the context of different text. In foreign language students frequently come across new vocabulary but often times are able to deduce the correct meanings through understanding the context surrounding the word. Along with context, cognates are very prevalent and helpful in understanding Spanish vocabulary. Students are often able to look at the stem of the unknown word and deduce the correct meaning based of previous knowledge of latin roots. For example, the word construir means to construct, a vocabulary word that many students would be able to decode without ever having learning the word. I would love to explore different ways to further incorporate common core into the foreign language curriculum.