Resource Blog 1

As we have learned so far, reading comprehension is a vital skill for learning any subject. As educators we must be aware of a student’s level of comprehension as we seek to educate our classes more and more in our respective subject areas. As we read last week in Chapter 2 of Subjects Matter, there are a multitude of thinking strategies that we can give to our students to help them not only understand the texts they read but also retain the knowledge they gain from reading. The resource that I chose relating to this text is a video that reiterates some of those specific strategies again. Along with this, the video lists specific questions teachers may ask to jump-start students’ thinking as they read. One of the questions listed is “Have you ever heard of anything like this…?” I really appreciate this question because I believe it connects several ideas that we have been discussing. For one, it is a great question to promote active wondering in students, but along with that, it also helps to call forth students’ schemata. For a refresher, schemata are the mental patterns where we store all the knowledge we have. Though simple, I believe this video would be such a valuable resource for those in my content area of math. Like all subjects, the ability to connect new pieces of information to previous information that students have learned is invaluable when building upon related material. Math is a great example of this because previous material is added to every year. I believe this video is so helpful because it takes the ideas of Chapter 2 of Subjects Matter and translates them into practical tools that math educators and educators alike can use to help students succeed. (Word Count: 293)

I did notice, similarly to other teachers asked to read the sentences about cricket, that I too became aggravated at the difficulty I was having understanding the text. Then as I read, "there is a national recognition in the common core standards that reading is about comprehension and thinking" my eyes were certainly opened to the necessity of reading that I have never realized. This necessity is the skill of constructing meaning from texts, according to the authors. Upon reading these things, I began to ask myself questions such as: "How in the world could I possibly create a learning environment that helped students to comprehend and think about the texts that they were reading?" Fortunately, the authors did provide some advice here at the beginning that calmed my worries. They suggested that teachers provide students with some background information before reading in hopes of triggering students' schemata as well as introducing students to thinking strategies that could aid them as they read. I feel like these steps are thankfully simple enough to duplicate, and yet, as far as I can see thus far, would have a major impact on students' ability to learn and retain information. After reading this text, I am excited to learn more about what it looks like to develop classrooms that help students comprehend and learn. (Word Count: 221)

Reading Fox in Socks

Hey guys! Here is my video of me reading Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. I chose his book because I used to love it as a kid! It's been a while since I've read it, so this was a fun little activity for me!