Tovani Reading: It Got Personal...

TOVANI READING: It Got Personal...

While reading CrisTovani's book, I felt myself making many connections to what she was saying. It took my back to elementary school about half way through my 3rd grade year, when my parents were told that I could not read and should be held back. My grandfather was still in the CVSD as an administrator and was with my parents at the meeting as well. Instead of holding me back, because I wasn’t struggling with anything else, just reading comprehension--- my grandfather took me to Sylvan Learning Center and had my reading tested and leveled to see where my errors and deficits were. I attended Sylvan for the remainder of the year and that summer. By the time I left Sylvan and began my grade 4 year, I was reading at the 8th grade level and had plenty of comprehensive strategies and reading skills to use when we would read in class. I even started enjoying reading on my own in my free time. The strategies I was taught as a child at age 8 have carried over to the strategies I use as a college student. The note taking, the questioning, the self-monitoring.

I see value and necessity in everything Tovani talks about because I was one of these students… I too read it but didn't get it.

First off, I more than appreciate the “worksheet” or strategy ideas in the back of the book starting on page 113 in part 3 “Access Tools”. I think with the majority of these tools it will be easy to hit on a variety of multiple intelligence sectors, but also, these are tools that I can use in my own learning as a college student now. I really think that visualizing what you are reading is a major help in understanding what is being read for a lot of students. Students today are all so visual and hands on— especially with their phones or other technological devices. They refer to these a lot of the time for visuals out of boredom or for educational reference so why not incorporate visualization into our reading for understanding.

One of the key concepts or statements I gathered and noted while reading was that understanding meaning is essential to improve reading comprehension. Decoding the words and recognizing them is one thing and it decoding does not mean that a person is comprehending what they are decoding. In order to ensure good comprehensive reading a student or really any individual reading for comprehension must lean on and utilize reading strategies while they read. This can be anything from using pre existing knowledge to make connections to asking themselves questions before, during, and after they read the text. My favorite strategy is note taking and page marking. The sticky note is my best friend while I am reading my textbooks because it flags important details or ideas that I will need to call upon later or that I may just have found to be personally important.

Utilizing cues and symbols relating to words, ideas, connections, or questions helps a reader focus on the text and self-monitor one’s comprehension. I do not believe that using strategies will always help a reader with certain texts. This is because some texts are just so dense or evoke so many questions that the reader can’t focus on moving through the reading. This is where discussion about a text to check for understanding helps comprehensively with reading.

I really enjoyed the section Tovani presents with the “types of readers”. I really dislike and disagree with labels applicable or not, however, these labels helped identify readers who exhibit specific behaviors and gives us examples of how we as teachers can work with these readers.

These types include:

• Resistive readers:
• “I’ll do anything BUT read…”
• They wait to be fed answers or information from teachers or peers and that is how they comprehend the text.
• listen, wait, copy, feed.
• Essentially, these students CAN read. They are completely capable of reading BUT they choose not to.
• Word Callers:
• mastered decoding and therefore choose to use their decoding skills to read…
• BUT…. they don’t understand and comprehend what they read and eventually quit or give up. (frustration)
• These readers can pronounce the words they see but they struggle with understanding what these words mean, especially when applied to an idea.

I think Tovani points out a few types of readers, however I know there are other “breeds” of reader. I think as a teacher it is important to utilize and understand all the types of reader you have within your class so you know who is going to require more strategies and encouragement to read independently and comprehensively.

There are a lot of experiences from the classroom that Tovani gives as examples and helps us place strategies with scenarios. One that really caught my attention and that I hadn’t heard before reading this was the story she tells about setting expectations. Tovani starts the first day of class by first asking her students to share their expectations of the class with her. Usually, teachers TELL and GIVE the students the expectations of the class (I have both witnessed and experienced this as a student). Instantly, it feels like you are being babied or in a modified subject specific boot camp. The teacher tells you what you will do and you as the student, well, you’re expected to just do it. Letting the students give their opinions, wants, needs, and expectations of the class FIRST helps them to see that their needs and opinions, their VOICES are of value to you as the teacher.

Tovani also talks to her students as if they are her equals. She portrays herself as a real person who has a life and doesn’t want to spend hours on end grading and reading book reports for example. This in a way allows the students to be less defiant or for lack of a better word resistant to you as the teacher just because you are an authoritative figure.