Synthesis Post #2

I can remember in middle school the embarrassment that would follow after mispronouncing a word during "popcorn reading" or the buildup of anxiety as your turn approaches. You reread your assigned paragraph, carefully practicing any big words you might stumble over. That's not how students should feel in the classroom when having to read aloud. Chapter 11 in Subject Matters states, "Many struggling readers feel that adults have somehow abandoned them, or pre-concluded that they are failures. Effective teachers find their own individual ways to demonstrate that this is not true" (Subject Matters, pg. 281). It's incredibly important to make your students feel comfortable in your classroom, especially students who may be struggling. If they feel like they can read a text and mess up without being embarrassed by their peers or lectured by the teacher they'll be less stressed and more willing to participate since there is no fear of failure. The chapter discussed a multitude of strategies for struggling readers beyond making students feel comfortable and taking away that fear of failure inside the classroom.

Reading is more than reciting a text fluently it's comprehending it as well. So, what do we do to ensure comprehension in our subject areas? Engagement in the text was the strategy that stood out to me the most. Students all have different learning styles so I think engagement of the text through drawing or acting things out it a great way to bring in differentiated learning. For example, my content area is science, so having students draw the stages of mitosis while they read a passage about the process would stimulate tactile/kinesthetic learners. Having students play the role of a cell, chromosomes, or sister chromatids, etc. and act out each phase of cell division would help visual learners see and understand the process, and listening to someone read the phases out loud would help auditory learners. Engagement in the text is key to a higher level of comprehension, so it's our job as teachers to go beyond assigning a text and having the class read it out loud. We need to cater to every students learning type and create lesson plans that immerse the students in their reading.
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