I Read It But I Don't Get It

Cris Trovani's "I Read It But I Don't Get It" was an incredibly insightful read for me. With her use of real classroom stories, in-depth descriptions on the reading process, giving tools on how to model that reading process, and keeping it both instructor and student focused the book was interesting as well as informative. A lot of the difficulty I face with my students is helping them understand why we are reading what we are reading. I try to inform them that we are reading for enjoyment, information, and to become better readers, but generally they feel as though they have been at the same reading level all of their lives. A lot of my students are restive readers, and word callers as she calls them.

I love a lot of the activities she poses to students throughout the book. They will certainly be used in my own classroom. I especially liked her ice breakers that involved reading. Generally we get the carbon copy ice breakers (stand up say name, favorite _____, dream job, etc. or some name game) in her English class she opens up with the books that affected her the most and then tells her students to bring in theirs. I would love to use this in a classroom; it not only allows for students to voice their own love/hate for reading, but it opens a collaborative classroom environment to the student and teacher, and makes the students more comfortable with sharing in class.

Her focus on modeling was also quite in depth and gave me a fresher view on modeling than I had previously held. I knew how important modeling was, and I use it with a lot of my lessons, as a good teacher should. I, however, did not see modeling in such a broad spectrum. Trovani states that we should even model our thought process whilst reading to students. Until I had read this I didn't not realize how useful it could be for my students to see an instructor working their way through a story and coming to conclusions audibly with the ability for them to see the thought process unfolding right in front of them. Although it may seem goofy to the students at first they will see you modeling good reading habits and be able to incorporate it into their own reading.

There are so many more incredible tools in the text as well. I will certainly be coming back and borrowing many ideas from it as I go on teaching. Sprinkling some of these activities into my lessons and helping my students craft a stronger reading toolkit will prepare them for states tests, college, and their future life that lies ahead of them.