Cris Tovani's "I read It, But I Don't Get IT"

As a person, a student, and as a teacher I am an avid reader. I love to read and reading, generally, comes easily. So, when I read Tovani’s I Read It, but I Don’t Get It I was both struck and saddened by the realization that so many students struggle to read, see reading as a negative, and have simply given up on the entire process. It is naïve of me to think that everyone loves delving into text in the same way that I do but I hope that I can help my students develop good readings skills and strategies so that when presented with reading, they don’t feel as if it is an impossible task.  

One important teaching method that Tovani mentions is that of modeling how to read and helping students understand that different types of reading require different types of strategies. This goes along with the idea that Tovani shared that students too often focus on just decoding and reading with fluency and thus, read and don’t comprehend. Students will absolutely need to know how to read and comprehend what they are reading if they are going to be able to survive in either college or the work world. If we can model that reading is much more than just sounding out words and show students the wealth of knowledge that is to be found in text, we are that much closer to helping students become successful readers themselves. I think that so often we, as teachers, forget that while something might make sense in our head, it does not necessarily make sense in the heads of our students. We can’t just explain why we think reading is important or tell students how to read. We have to show, to model, and to guide students through the action of reading. Sometimes the hardest part of growing a new skill is the start where the student must jump in and start trying. Helping those students see (via modeling) the kind of behavior that will make them successful is essential to helping them into that initial plunge.

Another thing that struck me about this text was the example given at the beginning where a classroom dialogue about reading was written down. Some of the students seemed almost proud that they hadn’t read an entire book before or that they were pros at cheating on book reports. The way the teacher handled this by showing that she too hated book reports was fantastic! Students have predetermined ideas regarding reading and what a reading class entails and when a teacher can shake those ideas up, add interest and intrigue to a “boring” class, students are more likely to finally respond in a positive manner. I think that our job as teachers isn’t to just teach the same old things in the same old ways but to respond to our students’ needs and to alter our teaching methods so that those students can be successful and gain the necessary skills.