Final Synthesis

Previous to this course, I would have never imagined myself as a future educator trying to incorporate reading into my math class, and or think it is part of my duty to educate my students on reading habits. I vividly remember on the first day of class, being asked to take our stance on teaching reading in our content area. I stood under the sign that represented "Content area teachers should not or cannot teach reading." I personally believed it was not my responsibility to teach reading since I was not in school to teach a student reading skills. Throughout the semester, I have come to learn and appreciate that it will be my responsibility to teach math concepts such as multiplying fractions, but it is also vital to teach my students important reading and literacy skills that can follow them throughout their education.

I started out the semester still struggling with the concept of how I could possibly teach my students reading skills through a math equation. Through Think-Alouds, I was challenged to use literacy skills in Math content. I didn't believe that Math teachers truly interacted with texts or used any literacy skills through solving math problems. Through this activity, I came to realize that this was exactly why taking a course such as this is vital to pre-service teachers. Teachers will have texts in their class material, and it is important as teachers to know how to teach our students how exactly to engage in these texts using vital reading skills. I learned the importance of modeling reading skills and applying those to reading a text, but also show my students that we all struggle with texts and that there are skills out there such as questioning, using prior knowledge and make connections that can help us through the more difficult texts (Subject Matters, Chapter 2). Overall, these Think-Alouds have shown me how vital it is for teachers to be an example for their students and their learning.

Another aspect of class that I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from was learning and being a part of a book club. In chapter 9, our textbook, Subject Matters, discusses the importance of book clubs and how they can be used in different content areas. My first thought when reading this chapter was there is no way we could use a book club in a math class, and or any other class where students weren't being taught English-Language Arts. Through experiencing book clubs, we were able to gain insight and knowledge of how we could best equip our students in book clubs, but also how beneficial book clubs can truly be. In my book club, I read Prisoner B- 3087, each person in my group was given a certain role, and through this I appreciated the idea of book clubs more. These roles came from Chapter 9 in our text book and ranged from illustrator, to the connector, to the researcher, to the page master. These roles allowed us to understand how to keep all of our students engaged in the reading while also gaining information and knowledge from it instead of just reading something to read it. I would have never thought of giving my students a novel to read and have a book club because prior to this course I didn't understand how there were different ways to teach that were not exclusive to lecturing. Book clubs allow classes to step away from the norm of teaching and get students involved in class material in a different way. This reaches students who may have more of a reading and a literacy mindset, rather than a solving math equations mindset. As a teacher, it not only benefits the students in crossing content, but the students as well, as they are able to make more connections across curriculum.

Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed this class and the knowledge of teaching reading I gained from it. Being a teacher is so much more than teaching our content areas day to day, but it is learning who our students are and how to best help them succeed. Teachers are often caught up in the curriculum and the test scores, and as a future educator this class has guided me to understand how to help my students learn more academically by meeting them where they are. Chapter 11 in Subject Matters, emphasizes on this idea by stating that "to help our students and learn from the tasks we assign them, we must work with their reading process." Teachers cannot stop learning from their students and getting them where they need to be by starting where we want to start, but rather where they can actually start. I strive to use what I have learned in this course in my classroom and not just teach math equations, but dive into reading skills that can help my students continue to succeed. By doing this, I hope to continue to learn something new every day along with my students.

Word Count: 832

"Teachers and Content Area Reading..." Individual Journal Club (Focal Area)

Summarize:

• This article goes into research done by content area teachers on their thoughts and beliefs of teaching reading in their specific subject areas. The main overall theme of this article is the importance of teaching reading in other content specific classes and the effect that has on students' learning and reading skills. Teachers play a vital role in their students lives and mainly their education; therefore if teachers are not taught the correct skills, then how will they be able to pass on the correct skills to their students. However, sometimes teachers' beliefs of what reading should look like in the classroom can skew what students are learning about reading and literacy skills. The article goes through benefits of teaching reading while showing research of how it is and is not being incorporated in the classroom. 

Connections: 

• The first two paragraphs seem to be summary of the basis of this class, and why the class is required for future educators, because I remember looking over my schedule last semester and there being a Language Arts based class on there and confused what that had to do with my content area. 
• When the article began to list the choices of the beliefs about teaching reading in content areas that were given during the research, I thought about when at the beginning of the semester, we were asked the exact same beliefs as in the article and picked where we felt we stood and then discussed around the room our different view points. Then we were asked the same question again towards the end of the semester to see if our views had changed. 
• I vividly remember the first time I was told that lecturing is no longer an encouraged method of teaching in my social studies class and was given alternative options, which shocked me because I was expecting to teach a lot of class material in lecture style.
• This class is the exact course they are speaking of for pre-service teachers. It is a one-semester required course that helps pre-service teachers think about teaching reading in our content areas.

Critique: 

• I think the article was flowing very smoothly until it got into the actual procedure of the research and how the study was chosen, and the flow of information became interrupted. I would have rather had those details at the end of the article because they are good to know, but not necessary to making a solid point. The data is the most important part, not the procedures. 
• It honestly makes sense that most teachers never look to themselves to blame for students' poor reading skills, but rather blame it on everyone else from parents, to co-teachers to the students themselves. Teachers honestly do not want to change their ways and I think it makes sense that they feel that way; however when it comes to reading abilities I believe it's something that just needs to change. 
• I think it was interesting that teachers in-service are more prone to wanting to learn how to teach reading within their content area over pre-service because a majority of our class seemed very interested and passionate about learning how to teach reading and the importance it has on our future students. 
• I would have followed up with the pre-service and in-service teachers on whether they truly took what they learned about reading in their content areas into their classroom. 
• Would it be possible to have pre-service and in-service teachers have the opportunity to take more than one course to help teach ways of incorporating reading into content areas? 
• Why is there not more reading course work specified for math if students are still struggling with word problems? 
• The research also does a poor job of including reading into Math specific content area. 

Explain Importance:

• When teachers decide to make decisions about how to teach reading based off past experiences, incomplete/incorrect knowledge, or even how they have seen it observed then they are no longer teaching by pedagogical or subject matter, but rather from personal beliefs. 
• It is teachers responsibility to continue helping students learn how to use necessary reading skills and apply them to expository text. 
• Teachers' beliefs ultimately drives teachers' decisions in the classroom. 
• In-service teachers' attitudes have changed and grown more positive when they are given time and support to learn how to teach reading. 
• Attitudes can be changed and teachers can learn to incorporate reading instruction into their content area and their classrooms. 

Word Count: 745