The reading of Buehl Chapter 6 is about the instructional practices for working complex disciplinary texts. When I began to read this article, what I feel is this is exactly what I am experiencing after I came to the United State. The question is:" When you are unable to avoid reading it or cannot depend someone else telling you what it says, what do you do to understand a problematic text?" Actually, I have been experienced this dilemma 3 months since I came to America. I have 7 classes this semester and most of them require a lot of reading in English. This is a challenge for me to read those articles. What I want to say is that what I'm experiencing is what my students will experience in the future. So I think that I can totally understand them. Buehl's article helped me understand the process of reading complex texts and analyses all aspects that teachers can do for students. And what I have learned after reading a lot of articles in English is that you should connect youself with the article. This is a great way to engage in the reading better. Before reading, it is important to know the basic topic of the reading. And when I begin to read that, I would take notes about each important part of the reading to help me memorize better. I think that what I have experienced after I got to America gave me many experiences that I can use them to help my students in the future.
I think both the study system and style are personal. Each student has his or her own way to study. Some of students love reading and some maybe are visual learners. For me, I’m never a reading actually. When I start to learn English, I love watching videos more than read. But My classmate who sat next to me is a reader. He loved reading the word and spell to memorize. But I loved watching videos about word or texts and that can help me memorize better. In my opinion, what we should do as teachers in the future is not to find a study rule for everyone but to help each student find a way that suits him or her the best.
But sometimes we cannot avoid reading just like what the article says in the beginning. I really like the strategy of this article in page 247 that teaching students the text code. I think that is a great way to help students understand a complex text when you read the text with questions and take notes. Those answers of the questions are just what the article shows to us and by taking the notes themselves, students can understand and memorize the article better.
I think that strategies in our class are very useful for us as teachers and for students to study. Such as concept map, framework and story mapping. When someone read a very complex article, I think it is better for him or her to read it with questions about the article. What we should do is to help students noting those questions, such as what kind of questions are appropriate and what sequences the questions should be. Also, we should help student find a way that best for them.
Hi Na!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing! I totally agree with you that before we read a particular article, it is important to know the basic topic of the reading because I think this can make students get a macro insight into the article. In turn, they can better understand the complex disciplinary texts. I feel happy to hear that you’ve grasped some reading strategy in reading complex texts, such as read the text with questions and take notes. As an ESL student, I also found these two strategies improved my reading ability a lot. In addition, I also think teachers should teach according to students’ aptitudes. By addressing this, I would say that teachers should focus on the students’ need. As educators, we suppose to make effort on doing assessment aimed at each student, especially the need assessments.
Thank you for your comments, Wangeng.
DeleteHi Na,
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you're in 7 classes this semester. That's a ton! We're in ED445 together, and that's a lot of dense reading on its own. I know it takes me at least 5 hours each week to really internalize the meanings of those, and even though I'm a relatively slow reader,but English is my first language at least. So props to you for that course load.
I'd like to ask a question about your personal experience, if that's okay. Do you find that having to do the work to translate an English text helps or hurts your comprehension? I'd imagine that reading in another language would require an extra element of focus instead of the skimming that readers are prone to do when they're not zeroed in on the text.
Thank,Robin. Actually most of time translation can help me a lot. I think the reason that I want to translate is not to translate the words or sentences but to understand the meaning.
DeleteI agree with the idea that students must have some basic knowledge of the reading. We cannot just give a student a reading about the 7 years war and expect them to know everything that they need to know before starting. Like Will said, you need to give context before starting the student on some kind of reading.
ReplyDeleteThank you , Patryk.
DeleteHi Na,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your sharing. I like what you said that what you are experiencing is what your students will experience in the future and I agree. Every teacher has ever been a student, and I think it might be helpful if teachers can share their experience of being a student and about how they faced and solved the challenges and difficulties in their learning with students. I also agree with what you mentioned that teachers should find a way best for students. Indeed, teachers should pay attention to what are the suitable ways of reading for different students to help them read effectively.
Thank you ,Yutong.
DeleteI like what you said about letting students study in a way that works best for them. I think the same concept can be applied to methods of teaching. Every student learns different so we can't hold them to the same standards. I know professors in college who mark answers wrong or take points off if the student doesnt use the same method the teacher taught them. I think this is very limiting for students and teachers. You have to meet the student where they're at and find what works best for them.
ReplyDeleteHello, thank you for sharing your personal experience to this article. And I cannot believe you're talking 7 class because thats an insane amount. Anyway congrats because you're doing an amazing job.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that everyone has their own study strategies. For me its helps to write down my notes and organize them to be able to understand them.
Hi Na. I agree with you that study systems and styles are varies from person to person. As a teacher, we can use different types of texts to let students understand the knowledge from multi-perspectives. In that way, students will find a suitable way to grasp knowledge. I also think I’ve learned many useful strategies in our class. For example, I consider that concept map helps me develop a macroscopic view, so I would teach my future students to learn it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing! I also really liked the strategy the reading was talking about with teaching students to mark text. I think it is important for students to interact with their reading. I think highlighting and annotating is one of the best ways to do that. "Highlighting, underlining, and marginal annotating are the moves..." (Buehl).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post Na. I can really relate to your experience trying to read difficult texts in a language that is not your first language. It is hard, and frustrating, and can be a huge problem when you are responsible for understanding the content of that text. I think that you are absolutely right that this experience will make you a better teacher in the future because not only will it make you able to sympathize with your students but it will allow you to develop learning strategies that you can then teach to your students.
ReplyDeleteHey Na, thank you for your sharing. I have the same feeling as you. At first I also have curious about all the reading are English when come to America, however, as time goes by I think it is interesting. So, when back to China, I think we can share with the students do not give up and everything will be fine besides English reading.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you are able to talk about "tough texts", but we cannot avoid these tough texts, as we learned from the reading, these texts are necessary, so it is important we give our students the tools we need in order to address these tough texts. This is why our strategy presentations in class are so important and informative.
ReplyDelete