QUOTE

While thinking aloud during shared reading may
seem like old news to teachers in grades K–5, we
found as we visited the classrooms of middle and
secondary teachers in three large urban schools
(one middle and two high schools) that we were
unlikely to see this type of instruction (Lapp &Fisher, 2007).

REFLECTTION

At the primary levels, these comprehension strategies are highlighted in abundance. However by the time the students get to the secondary levels, teachers seem to have the notion that they are beyond the think alouds and so they do not model its use. The students also may see this as ‘little children’ teaching and do not realize how much it can help at their level. It is up to the teacher to show the students how important these strategies are and that she is doing the think-alouds to help them see how they can go about comprehending difficult text.If the strategy worked at the primary level, why not at the secondary level. "If it aint broke, why fix it".

I recall as a secondary student and even at the tertiary levels, teachers making comments such as "you students like people to spoon feed you all too much. I dont have time for that. You are old enough to do certain things on your own." I never had the experience of dealing with secondary school students at a school as a teacher but even i am guilty of thinking that there are things that a student should 'just know' how to do. reflecting on this quote i realize that I have expected my younger sibblings to understand certain texts because of the fact that they are at a secondary school. However doing this course is opening my eyes to a wide variety of facts that are affecting my old thinking. Age does not define one's ability and a teacher should not use age to determine how much aid they provide students in helping them to comprehend text

Reflection #1

This reflection is supposed to be about my prior knowledge of Content Area Reading and Writing as well some of the problems I encountered in teaching at the secondary level. However prior to attending this institution I was the grade one teacher at a primary school and so lack the experience of teaching the subjects that I am currently pursuing at the secondary level. This fact makes it impossible for me to write up a reflection based on the experience of teaching secondary learners.
Content Area Reading and Writing is ones ability to use reading and writing skills to perform in different subject areas. I believe that this ability is crucial in order for a learner to perform in any subject area. It is believed that solely language teachers are responsible for teaching student to read and write and that this learning should occur only in a language class. However this should not be accepted as fact as a child’s ability to read and write affects his/her performance in all subject areas. Even in a subject such as Mathematics where it is mainly numeric, writing is necessary and a child needs to read in order to understand what is required of him. This simply proves that every subject teacher should be responsible for ensuring that a child is taught to read and write in all subject areas.
Content Area Reading and Writing is essential in equipping students with the ability and possibility of better performing in all subject areas.




Wheatney Francis