blog 2

I found a lot of interesting information in this weeks readings. The first thing that caught my eye was schools are going away from Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) to make room more more test prep. I can say my current school has SSR everyday for atleast 20 minutes during first period literacy.  In Chapter 2 of Readicide, there is proven research that SSR improves reading comprehension. So why are schools eliminating it? I had a problem with this last year. I taught a literacy class last year and offered SSR everyday for a while, but soon found out only 3 to 5 people would bring a book everyday and read. So the other 20 students wouldn't bring something in to read. So my next question is how do you get kids to read willingly? Readicide believes SSR develops prior knowledge and background information students need to survive in our classrooms. It also helps develop ones vocabulary too. The book refers to if students are only given academic reading and are forced to read material that doesn't interest them, than by the time they reach 9th grade they are sick of reading and don't enjoy recreational reading. I believe this is true. I personally didn't enjoy reading, but if I found something of interest I could manage. If you are forced to read something you don't like all the time, eventually you aren't going to want to read anymore. I like the idea of Article of the Week. I feel the reading is relevant, and interesting. This is a great way to bring interest back to reading for students who struggle with academic reading. This is something I want to try in my classroom.

Blog 1

I so far have found this class to be different that the rest of the MAT classes. I find it hard to relate literacy in physical education; however, I am open to learn and implement literacy in my class. I am a firm believer that today's youth has problems reading and comprehending. I personally have never enjoyed reading and have not done well in reading classes in the past. I hope that changes, I do enjoy reading the newspaper and information on sports. I have a hard time reading fiction or novels. I have never been interested or motivated to read. I hope to find a love for literacy and hope to implement it in my classroom.