I wasn't much of a reader, and am still not much of one. I am working
on it though, and am getting better. It does help when it is actually
something that you want to read. When it is something that I have to
read for school, I usually don't enjoy it. I'm not a very fast reader,
and usually you have to get all of the reading done in a certain time
period. Its frustrating, and most of the time I don't get it done, or
don't get it done well.
When I read things because I want to and
don't have a time constraint or an assignment to go with it, I usually
enjoy it. I remember more about what I have read too. If only I could
transfer those wanting to read skills to the have to read for school
skills. I decided that it would probably help if I just read more books
that I liked. But when would I have time to do that with school, work,
family, doing theater, and other things. I found a time! During my
lunch break at work (if I get one) I read while I'm eating lunch. I
only get a few pages read, but at least I'm getting some reading in that
I enjoy almost every day. I've been doing this for a few years, and
have found that it has helped a lot. I still don't like reading things
for school, but doing it has become a little easier.
I don't know how I'm going to get my students to want to read stuff about science. Some of them I'm sure will be excited about it, some will do it just because they have to, and some (like me) won't want to do it. I suppose I could share my story about reading with them (though I don't know how much good that will do). Hopefully I can find some more kid friendly texts to share with them. Really the challenge is to get them self-motivated. If you're doing it because you want to, that makes all the difference. Hopefully I can make science something that can be enjoyable, and that they will want to do on their own, not just because they have to.
Lol, I can totally relate to your experience of reading. Reading things that I like has greatly influenced my ability to read in a school setting, I really wish that I would have read more as a child for fun, so that I would have had the skills necessary to read and comprehend school material earlier in life. It seems like My teachers growing up, all loved to read for their entire life and never understood what it was like to be in their class without that talent. It seems to me that since you understand that better than others, you will be able to teach with understanding which will lead to better teaching. Thanks for your post,
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Hi Morgan...I actually think it's great that you don't consider yourself to be much of a reader because then that will make you much more empathetic to your students who also don't like to read. You will think twice before assigning them large chunks of reading. At the same time, a lot of researchers in science say that when teachers DON"T ask their students to read science texts, then they don't help them develop an important aspect of science literacy. Some teachers skip science texts all together because sometimes students find them boring, but then students don't have the skills necessary to read science texts in college. I actually think that science textbooks can be fairly interesting if teachers provide strong "before reading" and "during reading" instruction on them. I also think there are so many high-interest science texts for young adults out there right now that you will be able to find things that will genuinely interest even students who typically don't like reading. Thanks for your posting!
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