Chapter 6

Reader Response Chapter 6

After reading about how to motivate my students all I can picture in my head is a room full of surly teenagers who don’t want to be in my classroom and are staring anywhere but at me or their fellow classmates. I have a hard time connecting to a student who is unmotivated because even if I didn’t like a subject or teacher I was motivated by my GPA. I wanted to do well in a class because I wanted to do well in school. There were times I did the least amount of work needed to get the grade I wanted, but I always tried. I am now terrified to walk in to a class and see a mass of blank faces looking back at me.  After reading this chapter, I have come to the conclusion that even if I don’t have students in love with my subject, I can at least have a room full of confident readers that are willing and motivated to tackle my subject.

The section on arousing curiosity reiterated activating background knowledge as one of keys to making connections to the text being read. It is the best way to get them engaged in the reading because they are already thinking about what they know and how to apply it to the reading. Using story impressions is a great way to get kids interested in what they are reading. The example using Gulliver’s Travels was interesting to me because I could visualize kids using it in class. Using the chain of clue words helps kids anticipate what is going to happen and what the story is about. It helps them focus on the story and know what to look for before they read it. The prereading exercises discussed in the text are relevant in all content area because they provide time needed for the students to raise questions and find solutions before they begin reading. They are no longer going in to a text blind, but instead are prepared to get meaning from what they are reading. I thought the anticipation guide for preconceived notions (figure 6.9) was not as helpful as the other strategies. I could see this being a setback for certain students, especially those who do not like to fail and feel the need to be perfect. It has the potential to make students feel stupid. It could be useful for more objective materials, but for objective content it has the potential to create pushback toward the subject.

The section on ReQuest was very helpful in understanding how to guide struggling readers to ask questions about what they are reading. I think most students, not just struggling readers, have a hard time determining what is most important when reading. Modeling how to ask questions after reading and then having them practice it with a partner or small group is beneficial for all the students participating in the strategy. I can see this being time consuming and difficult to do with every text, but once it is learned it would not be as time intensive. This strategy can be modified to fit the content and the classroom.