Coming into this course I
wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. By the looks of the book, Subjects Matter, I
just thought we were going to talk about how every subject matters and has a
purpose. While we did talk about that, more importantly the book discussed how
to incorporate reading in every subject and why that matters. One of my
favorite things we learned about were all the reading strategies. They are all
so different and so intriguing. They are portrayed in such a way that kind of
makes students want to participate. For example, frontloading with images can
almost be looked at as a game to students. They are trying to guess what these
different pictures are and then they try and tie them all together to see what
the topic is that is going to be discussed. Sketching my way through the text
is one that could easily get our creative students interested and wanting to
read so they can sketch something out about the reading. Turn and talk gives
students a chance to talk to their neighbor about what they just read. Letting students
talk to one another is a good way for them to get some of their energy out. They
don’t feel like they have to sit and be quiet the entire time. Tweeting the
text allows students to get on Twitter, a popular social media site, and tweet
about what they read. Students will enjoy this just because they get to get on
social media and tweet. How cool?! There are so many other reading strategies
that are just as exciting as the ones listed here.
In Christopher
Emdin’s Ted Talk, “Teach Teachers how to Create Magic”, he discusses that we
need to bring the excitement back into the classrooms. We need to do the things
that will keep our students engaged the entire time, and I think that some of
these reading strategies will help us do that. Not only can they be fun, but they
are also teaching our students how to become better readers. At the beginning
of the video, he states that there are aspiring teachers listening to their
professors go on and on about engagement in the most disengaging way possible. He
also states that there are first year teachers who are telling themselves over
and over not to smile until November because that is what they were taught in
their program. How is that engaging? How can you build relationships with your
students if you are waiting to shoot them a smile until November? We have to
show emotion for ourselves, for our subject, and for our students. We need to
do that to keep them engaged with the learning. One story that our professor
told us about his own experience sticks out very clearly to me. To open a new
topic in his classroom he had a student pick an argument with him which resulted
in the student shoving him (I think I am remembering correctly). The whole
argument was staged but the rest of his class had no idea. Can you imagine how
engaged that class was watching just what went down? I thought that was
spectacular and such a neat idea. An idea that brings “magic” to the classroom.
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