Chapter 4: Meaning First

This chapter is an excellent reminder of how vital "interacting meaningfully with text" (p.53) is in a child's learning process both in and outside of the classroom. Being a social studies teacher, I appreciate how the author points out the importance of making curriculum relevant and interesting, whether through correlating historical texts and how they relate to us today or discussing current events, such as asking a class about Hurricane Katrina. I have noticed that students seem to enjoy "reading" from different sources like newspapers and brochures during a class lesson or while researching in the library. I enjoyed the section on Highlighting Key Vocabulary and agree with Regie that a rich vocabulary is crucial to being effective in reading, writing, and understanding. The intentional teaching of selected words and going over the meanings of these words as they are used in a text or while speaking are great ways to expand students' vocabularies. Regie makes a good point in encouraging students to ask what a word means when they don't know. Often times students don't feel comfortable asking out loud, so making a point to say "please ask" will further vocabulary expansion. Lastly, the idea of "starting with the student" and using subjects he or she is interested in can encompass so many avenues in which to guide and motivate a child to learn.