Reading

Well I am in a class that is helping me understand how to use reading in my future classroom. It has given me some great ideas so far. I think something I continue to see is that we as teachers often do not understand what reading is. Most of the time we like to assign readings and have students give us summary's or take a quiz on it. This makes us feel like we know if they have read the material or not. Most of the time though, it has no lasting  impact. They read do an activity and don't remember a single thing from it. I think this is because the reading has no meaning for them except a grade. This is why we need to help students connect to the reading. As teachers we need to start thinking outside the box in regards to reading assignments. Maybe students need to read an article or the newspaper to spark interest. Reading will only get better if students find it interesting and are willing to read for something more than a grade. That means students need to want to learn something when they read. There are many ways to encourage this and provide this for students. That is why I am going to look at some strategies teachers could use. There will be three main sections I want to focus on: Before, During, and After the reading takes place. There are strategies to increase learning with simple activities in these three areas that will make a huge difference in the reading experience for students. I will start with Before in my post.
Until then Blessings
Jake Wallbaum