"Why Am I Reading This?"

I think "why am I reading this?" is a question we often ask ourselves at school. We don't really know the importance of this topic and we end up reading a whole section of a book while thinking about "what mom's cooking for dinner." Or at least...this is what I thought about.

After reading Tovani's Chapter 5 of "Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?" I realized that it is our job as teachers to make the importance of reading known to our students. Tovani mentions a child that associates good reading with fast reading which is something I think a lot of kids struggle with. I know that when I was little, I didn't want to read out loud in class because I was a slow reader and in my mind, that made me a bad reader. But, this is not the case. If we as teachers, can assign purpose, students will reading as they search for something and pay more attention to what we, as teachers, want them to know rather than them trying to remember every little part in the text.

So now we have a big question: What do I teach? And what do I leave out? I feel like all teachers debate with this question. There is so many things that we could all cover but not enough time to do so. So I will ask you this question my fellow fairies, HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO INCLUDE?

Tovani mentions this great instructional focus sheet. And frankly, I'm obsessed. I like that it asks simple questions and I feel like I could definitely use this sheet to help plan my lessons. Here are the two examples that I would love to use. The first is a math teacher and the second is a science teacher. But the questions asked are simple and to the point. For myself, I would want to make a couple copies every time I make my students read an article or when I am planning for my math unit. That way, everything is right in front of me and I think about how my students will react to the topics presented.

Tovani says, "If we don't help students pill out essential information my giving them a purpose for their reading, they will often get lost in the extraneous details." I love this quote because I think it defines our job as teachers. We are trying to make their life a little easier because stressing them out with too much text is only hurting them. "A clear instructional purpose can greatly improve a treader's comprehension." She has proof that this works so I plan on trying my best to make my students' lives a little overwhelming from the reading and getting down to what is important. I'm not saying that I will not have my students reading because I do think reading is incredibly important. But what I am saying is that I will give them tools to help the reading become tolerable and comprehensive.

~Your Truly, 

The Teacher Fairy