After reading chapter two of Subjects Matter, I have a
better understanding on one of the main reasons why students have difficulty
comprehending in different content areas. I’ve always struggled comprehending
various passages in language arts when I was in elementary school and always
had to go back and re-read the passages repeatedly, but I usually did well in
my other subject classes. I realized that if it didn’t interest me then I couldn’t focus on the reading causing my brain not to process the words. I
began reading more books that I enjoyed and eventually it became a little
easier overall. I don’t quite understand why students are still struggling in
the classes that have their teachers covering the content so that students are
not only familiar with the terms, but also understand their connections and
what they mean. I can remember taking an Honors Biology class during my
freshman year of high school. We were required to read ahead prior to class and
after a brief discussion, we were tested on the materials. At the beginning, it
was very difficult for me because I didn’t do have the prior knowledge from the
reading to ask any questions I may have had from the reading or to do well on
the quizzes. I learned early on that reading before class was extremely
necessary for this class. This shows that having prior knowledge is an
important factor for comprehension. I also know that when it comes to
standardized tests, the wording of the questions can throw a student off, but
with prior knowledge, they should be able to do process of elimination. Are
students being exposed to the type of questions that are seen on these
standardized tests? I believe teachers need to familiarize students to
standardize test questions that pertain to their lessons, so they aren’t seeing
them for the first time when it’s time to test.
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Autumn
Great post! I can relate to what you are describing in a lot of ways. I also experienced difficulty with reading comprehension in school and often had to re-read passages. I think with the knowledge gained from reading the passage we can learn to be better readers and therefore help our students with reading. This is especially important for Science since the textbooks will have a lot more words and will require more reading. Overall, I think it is helpful that we can relate to our students struggles with reading comprehension and with the knowledge of how to help we will make excellent teachers!
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Hey Autumn! First off, I loved your Gif because I could not relate more to it and it really fits well with you blog. Growing up I struggled very much in my English classes. Reading was very difficult for me and I could not understand why. All my classmates seemed to enjoy it so much and I never felt that way. It was never because I couldn’t read the text but mostly because I would read without retaining the information. It was my fourth grade teacher that noticed this and was the first one to sit down with me and really help. She taught me tools to use while reading that allowed me to slow down and enjoy the text rather than quickly skimming over it so I could be done. Looking back, I not only learned how to enjoy reading but to better understand the skills behind reading.
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