Tovani’s “I Read it, but I don’t get it”

               Getting students actually interested in what they are reading and knowing why they are reading it is perhaps one of the biggest challenges I can think of as a future teacher (there are probably bigger issues, but for right now this is the extant of my knowledge). Like it says in Chris Tovani’s I Read It, but I Don’t Get It, students will most likely lose interest in actually reading the text they are assigned and will turn to online and other outside sources in order to get a summary of the book/text and find answers for talking points about the text in class, rather than thinking about it themselves. I was guilty of this, and I am positive that my future students will be guilty of this too, even if I do discourage it. But I most likely will not openly discourage going online and getting summaries/themes of texts that I assign in class. Instead, I will create assignments (not necessarily tests) that can only be perfectly completed if the student actually read the text, thus encouraging students to read what they are assigned. Also, making connections of the reading material to outside known information is another good way to generate interest in student reading and learning. For example, by connecting an historical fiction novel to a major war in history that students have already learned about, students will be able to connect and pick out fictional parts of the novel that relate to the actual historical events that they learned in social studies. Finding any way to connect something you are leading the class through to something that they already know (or know of) is an invaluable skill to have and is an easy way to promote student learning and interest. Even if the teacher knows that what they are reading does not connect with anything that the students already know, they can introduce something that the students will surely be interested in first, and then go on to connect the reading to that. There is no shortage of background information to be had.