- After teaching in a classroom for a semester, reading through the article and from my personal experience of being in a classroom as a teenager, I've come to the conclusion that basically most students just do not enjoy reading. They especially do not enjoy reading texts that are assigned to them. Usually the texts assigned have more educational value than entertainment value and are harder for students to pay attention to and move through as opposed to books such as Harry Potter or Twilight. Now-a-days it is especially hard for teachers to expect students to read 200-300 page novels because this day-in-age with advances in technologies students have an abundance of information available to them with the touch of a button and teens like to be "instantly-gratified". Reading a novel, even though it might be as equally gratifying in the end, would take too long to achieve that goal so students are instantly turned away.
- My experiences, although meager at most right now, have shown me that the second a teacher requests students read something instantly the room will break out in moans and groans. Even if it is something that might actually appeal to them they don't want to take the time to read it, they would rather you just tell them what it is about and than they will tell you their opinion on what you said.
- In history there is a necessity to read a lot. To form opinions on history and to really understand historical events one most explore different peoples opinions on the event and read through multiple accounts since history is told through the eyes of the beholder. It is annoying and of course it is overwhelming when you have to think about all the articles and time you will have to spend to research topics but if you enjoy history than you don't mind because it is actually rather interesting to hear and read about the different accounts from a specific event in time. Effective reading in History is taking the time to rummage through multiple sources, both primary and secondary, and acquiring as much knowledge as you can from them to form your own opinion about how an event occurred.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Content Literacy In adolescents
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I completely agree with you! Most kids do not like to read at all! And since we did teach together :), it does seem that no matter what the reading assignment may be, the students break out into "ugh, do we have to!?!?" In my content, there is also a necessity for reading, you just have to read to understand whats going on in the world and to keep up with Politics. I also have a passion for history too, and completely agree with what you said about reading in history. It's unfortunate that most history teachers do not find more exciting and adventurous things to read since after all, that is how history was created.
ReplyDeleteThere is a comedian naked Jim Gaffigan, and in one of his skits he talks about the joys of watching movies made based on books. His response to people who claim that "the book was much better" is, "You know what I liked about the movie? No reading. It took two hours, and then I took a nap." It seems as though that mentality is an epidemic, and much less funny when it's something you're struggling with. I think getting students passionate about reading will be one of the most difficult challenges for us as teachers.
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