Blog #2 YGBB Chapters 1,2, and 3

As I was reading the three chapters for homework, all I could do was put myself right into the book and act as if I was Mr. Wilhelm, which if you read my last blog, that is what I do with all stories.  That is how I hope to inspire all my kids to read because it doesnt make you think about questions that you will be asked later on what you read and you can acutally enjoy what you are reading. 

In chapter one, it opened by talking about how in order to enter Mr. Wilhelm's class you had to have an entrance ticket.  This would consist of a book, a high five, and saying, "I am a reader!"  I thought this was an awesome way to get students enthusiastic about reading.  There will always be a student like Marvin who does not like to read at all because of his previous experiences.

I learned about the bottom-up approach last semester a little bit and I think it is a terrible way to learn.  When I was growing up I was taught how to read using both bottom-up approach and the top-down approach.  I think this was a really good way because I got some of the necessary phoenics skills I needed and did not get bored with all the letter sounds while learning to read.

The qoute that is on page 23, really got to me.  I was thinking about how if a student as an adolescent and doesnt love to read, is it our job to make them love it or at least try? I think we really should.  If we show enthusiasm about reading and try our best to get students to be the same way, then we might succeed.  I aslo thought that when I am a teacher and I have to mark that a student is "low level" because I am reading a classic, then I am going to try and sneek in a grapgic novel or a satire to spice up class a little but and see if the students understand those kinds of stories better.

I hope to make students think that reading is the "cool" thing to do.  I was told about a video called "Gotta Keep Reading" and it is a mix if the "I Gotta Feeling" song by the Black Eyed Peas.  It is an awesome video and I want to teach all my students the dance and that song so that they might think it is cooler somehow from this video.  I think students will enjoy it because it has a popular song mixed up a little and it would be easy to learn the words because of that. 

As I was reading chapter 2 I was thinking about students with disabilities a lot because of course that was what the chapter was about.  I worked at a camp for disabled kids for a few summers and volunteered there as well and I am familiar with a lot of disabilities.  I also observed teachers that have had learning disability students in there. 

When I am a teacher and come across students like these in my classroom, I am sure I am going to be nervous.  These students will have a little more difficulty with things in my classroom.  I also hated to hear that those students that have LD in the book were people that hated reading a lot because they are not good at it.  Also when the one student said that they did not like that teachers asked questions at the end and it ruined the reading.  I am honestly not sure how to handle that because as teachers we will ask questions about the content of the story and on standardized tests there are readings with questions after them.  The only thing I could think of to try and avoid question asking is to have the students discuss with each other rather than me.

Like, in chapter 3, the students wrote literary letters to each other and I thought this was an excellent thought because it includes writing, discussing the book, and then I could collect them and see how well the students are understanding the story.  That means I have a good way to assess the students as they are reading.

I also liked the symbolic story representations.  I think most of the students would enjoy doing this for a story because some students are visual learners and this could help the interpret a story better if they had it acted our more.

When I saw in chapter 3 that one of the students did not understand the story until they put themsleves into the characater's body, I knew the student was like me because that was/is the way I read. 

There are so many things in this book that made me really think about how to teach these adolescents how to read.  It helped me realize there will be difficult students and ones that love to read and somehow we need to compensate for them both.  As teachers, we will always have challenges with students because none of them are easy at this stage because they do not think reading is cool and even if they do they will not like the book you assign in class.  I hope when I am teaching, I will remember to refer back to this book in time of need to remind me of all the different teaching styles that Mr. Wilhelm did to help his students become better readers so that I cna do the same thing for my students!