Chapter 4

This is my favorite chapter so far. I think that focusing on meaning is so important. Students need meaning and purpose behind what they are reading, writing, etc. to make it relevant to them. I remember learning countless formulas in algebra and when I questioned my teacher about how I would use them in the real-world, he had no answer. Therefore, I did not feel that learning the material was important and put minimal effort into the class. Another good point she made is to demonstrate what you want the students to do instead of just telling them the instructions. A lot of students need visual reinforcement to go along the verbal. I also liked the point she made about textbooks being beyond the students reading levels. Students have a hard time reading the words; because of this, they spend all of their energy focusing on reading the word and lose the meaning. Even when books are on the students reading level I have found that little understand what is going on in the story. I feel there is a lot of emphasis on reading words but, not enough on understanding what is being read. I have also found that students have a hard time moving from literal thinking; impeding things such as character analysis, inferring, and predicting. I feel one of the biggest challenges I face as a teacher is making everything flow together while fitting in all of the required standards.