Fortunately and unfortunately I will be teaching a subject that involves tons of reading! History, Government/Civics, and Economics just have so much reading involved. Most, however is embedded within the textbooks, and through my experience in High School and the teachers that I had, they never took the time to bring in other resources for us to look at or try and explore to gain our attention on the particular subject. Most students are incredibly bored with my content because of the fact that no other 'interesting' texts have been introduced. Maybe I'm a little bias because I absolutely LOVE to read any chance I get, but I have faith that there has to be interesting Government books out there that can be brought into the classroom.
In my opinion I don't think that adolescents are given enough exposure to content literacy, as with my own experience which then leads them to either dislike or just scim the surface of a topic or content area. It is my hope that I can introduce interesting and engaging material to my students that helps them further enjoy my class but also allows them to become more well-rounded individuals.
In working at Early College last semester, I wasn't necessarily in my content (not that any of us were) but I was exposed to adolescents and their reading capabilities or for some, reading incapability. We had one student who would read non-stop and we could barely get him to do his regular work. Then the majority of the class we had to force them to read anything, even a small paragraph! I just wish that adolescents were more exposed to reading in every subject, and not just boring textbook reading so that it would just become a part of their every day routines...
well, that's all I got for right now!
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Nicole,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up really important issues. Maybe getting students to read in every course, but shorter text at first to build up their fluency. I remember that at the beginning of the school year. I would have my students writing just a bit in everything we did. Not copying, but composing and expressing their own ideas. Then, I gradually reduced to few pieces of writing, but allowing more time. It was amazing how their written fluency improved. I wonder what that might look like across a secondary curriculum?