YGBB is a really good book for our class to read as future teachers. I constantly was making marks, underlining etc. because this book will stay on my book shelf for future need. The intro and first three chapters really got me interested because I wanted to know about the teacher's research and how the student's reacted to literature as well as hear their responses about different reading skills etc. I personally want to become a teacher because I am intrigued by getting students involved in loving to read, and interested in English all together. So this book is particularly important to me.
It is really important to produce and create meaning for students and Jeffrey Wilhelm does a great job of showing his readers how he did this with his students. His strategies for getting the readers to be more engaged interested me. More specifically, his idea of what he refers to as SRI (Symbolic Story Representation) really caught my attention. I enjoyed the idea of making cut outs to represent scenes, setting importance, or even cutouts to represent the reader. This idea is one that I definitely want to use in my classroom. I am alll about getting involved in new and inspirational ways to engage my less experienced readers. Like I mentioned, I want to be a teacher who does move students to a happier viewpoint about English, reading, and writing. I also did not even think of posting in a teaching journal before this book and now, I can not wait until I can actually begin one! It is a fantastic idea because you get to see/ write how the class turned out, see what methods worked and which did not and in the future go back and reread what you wrote. It will be a personal tool that will assess me and continuously help me, help my students. The author makes strong points about having to get to know your students in order to help them get to know themselves, their reading strategies etc. which allows them to have an aesthetic experience. This is really true and I can't wait to finally make those connections with my students in the near future.
It is also strong to note that the author of YGBB is concerned much with the idea of meaning making. I really agree with him. Reading and teaching skills on how to get the best out of reading is through meaning making and connections, as well as "determining importance, summarizing information, drawing inferences, generating questions and monitoring comprehension" (31). Visualize, elaborate, compare, experience, connect, participate, reflect, understand - these are all descriptive words that define the activities of getting your students involved. I am really looking forward to completing this book and in near future going back to it for advice!
I really like "his idea of what he refers to as SRI (Symbolic Story Representation)" as well. The cut outs will be a fantastic way to personalize the scenes, settings, and also any characters that a influential to the story. I feel that this will allow students to relate to the story and be reminded of the parts that they wish to represent.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a reading journal will be so beneficial to us. It will allow us to know what works, what fails, and how we could fix the things that fail in our classroom, which in return will benefit our students.
I really like your emphasis on student's enjoying what they read. I also share that emphasis. It is important for students to enjoy what they are reading in order for them to fully understand the concepts.
ReplyDeleteI also really like the idea of SRI (symbolic story representation. I really believe that cut out and other pictorial representations for a story will help to keep the students interested. I think this method would be especially good for those of us planning on teaching grades 4 to 8. Since they are younger they will definitely enjoy anything they can touch or make a connection to.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: "His strategies for getting the readers to be more engaged interested me. More specifically, his idea of what he refers to as SRI (Symbolic Story Representation) really caught my attention. I enjoyed the idea of making cut outs to represent scenes, setting importance, or even cutouts to represent the reader." I completely agree with what you said about his strategies. I was particularly interested in the SRI method and wish I would have been taught to interact with literature in that way (or at least have been given the choice once over the years). The artistic forms of representation seem to interest the students who find it hard to read or connect. I remember in the reading for our next section, Chapter 5, how he uses them with the learning disabled students and the ESL student and how well it works out for them. I would like to use this in my classroom and I am excited to see how it would work in person.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this book is very influential. I also like how your plan on referring to it, even later, after you have reached your goal of being an educator. I would like to see how our own classrooms will relate to the authors after we have had the chance to have experience them. It would be interesting rereading the book after having been a teacher for a few years and making some comparisons on our own.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on how important this book is to a teacher. For a student to enjoy reading, it is by creating meaning and understanding of what they have read. That was something that frustrated me when I was younger. I had a difficult time understanding what I had read and it was just very frustrating. Through my own experiences, it is important for the student to create meaning and connections to help them remember the text.
ReplyDeleteI feel it is every future teachers goal to have students enjoy to read and to find the best way to help each student succeed. We want to have that influence on our students and to see the difference we can make. I feel the exact same way you do as the kind of teacher I want to be.