Chapter 1 & 2: Subjects Matter

                                                         

I appreciate that Daniels and Zemelan want “to see students overly worked up” about a subject as a result of their course reading (13).  Every teacher does. According to these authors, all educators need to focus on techniques that will increase comprehension rather than "decoding" or many students won't become passionate (22). There logic essentially states that since basic phonetic skills are completed in elementary school, high school teachers should move onto teaching the more challenging material that many pupils struggle with as decoding isn't really an issue at that stage of learning anymore (22). Wilhelm makes a similar point when explaining his choice for a teacher/learner centered approach to education as well, showing that Daniels and Zemelan’s notion has some support (39).

I might agree with all three authors, were it not for the illiteracy rate in the United States. According to a recent 2013 Huffington Post article, 21% of the adult population reads worse than a 5^th grader and 19% of graduating seniors can’t read at all (see below link). I feel like these student might have missed some of the basic decoding skills in their prior years that could have helped them read better. Another concern I have is for ESL learners. As my observations at CF show, there are students in mainstream classrooms who understand Spanish better than English. How would I best teach those student to read and keep up with my content? Daniels and Zemelman seemed to believe that students with phonetic issues already have resource teachers who will help them; implying that everything will be fine due to the special education department (22). However, if the aforementioned student is in my classroom, shouldn’t their reading problem be my concern too?

I suggest that lower skilled readers be taught in a manner that addresses both decoding and comprehension problems so as to maintain the high standards these authors advocate. For I feel giving an assignment geared to increasing comprehension won’t work unless the student can read English in the first place. As someone who was told early on in their school career that they can't hear phonetically, I take this issue very seriously because I know just how hard it is to read when sounds don't come together. Luckily this is a problem I overcame, but it still happens to me every now and again. A word I will use in everyday language will be printed on a page and I will be staring at it for 3 minutes trying to figure it out before the issue is clarified. When I was younger these reading blocks were more frequent so I found reading exhausting. I actually hated reading for quite some time because of just how bad I was at it. When I do start teaching, I hope my prior disdain of the subject is something I can advert my students from feeling. 

On a more positive note, I do agree with the fact that educators need to learn how to teach reading in a way that furthers critical thinking skills. For I now love reading because of how thought provoking some stories can be. Plus being able to think critically is just a good skill to have in general. Without this ability, people run the risk of making poor uninformed decisions that affect much of their life. I know before I was taught how to comprehend I couldn't make connections between what I read and what I learned. Meaning the reflective pieces we have to do right now to grow as an educator is something I couldn't sufficiently do before. Such reflective pieces is one of the most valuable aspect to learning, because otherwise how would a student really understand or remember what they learned? Therefore, these reasons make me think comprehension is something that teachers really need to focus on as well. 

Link

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html