Visualization in the reading

The last 2 sections in You Gotta Be The Book also talk about visualization. The author says many less proficient readers do not naturally and spontaneously experience literature as participants. When I read a book, I would imagine and visualize the world naturally and this is why I can enjoy a book but at the same time there are some students who they can do it naturally and this book tells us how to make students able to visualize the world in the book. In chapter 5, the author says if you want to know how to teach students, get to know them. To make students read, you have to know what each student likes to do and look for what would work for each student. I really agree this point. Though in the last of this book the author talks about some big issues of teaching, I think teachers have to think of strategies that work for each student. I mean, at least there would be some students who don’t want to read and in that case, you have to work with this student. To make those students read, you have to know them. Kae doesn’t have enough English skills and this is why she doesn’t like reading. However she reads comic books a lot and her reading skills get better. Then the author realizes reading comic books also helps students. Usually comic books have pictures and this makes it easy to tie up words and images. This also shows how important to visualize the world in your brain while you are reading.

If there are some students who are left behind other students, teachers should work with those students. As the author says it’s hard to make plans that fit every student but still teachers should care each student.

why hate reading?

Why students hate reading? I thought just they don’t like it. Why they don’t like it? Because….

I’ve read you gotta be the book and the author says that students who don’t like reading or not good at reading can’t make a story world in their brain. This makes sense to me. When I read a book and if it’s not fun and enjoyable, I can’t make an imaginary story world in my head but if it’s enjoyable, I make it naturally and it makes me read more and more. The author used drama to teach students to think about it. At first students says the book doesn’t say because they don’t make information together and don’t imagine the story world but through the activity, they gradually come to get the way of thinking and they come to read. This is incredible. I thought there is no way to make students who don’t like reading like to read. We can such have such students read but it is really hard to make them come to like reading. In this book, author says you have to live the story and I really agree with this. To make the story world in your brain and enjoy the story refers living in the story. Drama helps make students think in that way. The book talks about three students’ changes and it is dramatically. 

When I was in middle school or high school there were some students don’t like reading and it is the same as everywhere. At that time, I thought they just don’t like reading and the teachers rarely care about them. They came to not read more and more. I think these methods help teachers who struggle with students who don’t read. I don’t think it helps every student but at least it is worth trying.

How to teach students?

I read CLEARING THE WAY chapter 7 and 8. Through reading these chapters, I got ideas how teachers should act and teach. The author mentioned teachers should encourage students but, at the same time, they need to think about how to deal with students’ problems. Therefore they have to talk about what is bad and should be revised. I guess this is sometimes really hard for the teachers. They want encourage their students and they don’t want make their students disappointed but they have to tell what is a problem on their work too. The author of the book told some suggestions you could do to your students but I think it really depends on your students how to encourage and tell their problems.

I want to talk about grading too. Teachers must be fair to all of their students. Sometimes, in the middle of the grading, teachers’ criteria might be changing but they need to grade their students with the absolutely same criteria. So sometimes, teachers need to take some time and double-check students’ works. The author said English is an art. Students make poems so it’s different from math or science. This is one of the reasons why in English the grading is sometimes hard for teachers. They can’t just count the numbers of correct answers but they need to see what this student got from this or improved from the last work. The author mentioned about her way of giving a comment to her student. She said that if a student uses the technique that was introduced in the class, she praises it. I think this is really good idea because it encouraged the student to use those techniques.

There are various ways to teach students but every time teachers should be honest to their students and tell what is good or bad on their work and keep encouraging their students.

curriculum

I read EARLY CARRR ENGLISH TEACHERS IN ACTION chapter 4. It is hard to come up with an idea how to teach students effectively. Teachers have to think about it before a semester begins. Sometimes it works, sometimes doesn’t work. It depends on the district but sometimes schools have a curriculum that is the same as other schools in a district. The book mentioned that means all the 6^th grader studies the same thing. I guess it work for some subjects. With math or science it would work but when it comes to English, it may not work because in math or science, there is a formula and you have to be able to use it but in English there is not such a formula. There is grammar but it is not the all of English. If you read a book, you have to feel something and think about it. What I want to say is that in English, it would be better to think what book you are going to use for class and how to teach it to students. You don’t need to teach with the same material as other school’s teachers. However, it sometimes may be really difficult for a new teacher. If they are new teachers, they may not know how to teach or what to teach or what materials are the best for students.

In the last narrative, he talks about self-evaluation. I think it is important too. He said to take your lecture is one of best ways to evaluate yourself. With a tape of your class, you could notice tiny things that you may better to fix. Sometimes it is really hard to find what is a problem in a curriculum or what is better to be replaced in another way. Taking your lecture by yourself would be a great way.

student behavior

I’ve read chapter 6 “student behavior” in the book “EARLY CARRER ENGLISH TEACHERS IN ACTION”. It was written basically about students’ behavior in a classroom. There are many types of students of course in a class and teachers are usually only one in there as an adult. As wrote in this book too, you can’t expect everything what those students do or happen next but you have to deal with a problem if there is a problem.

Here comes my question. As the author says in this book, can we as a teacher see one student rather than other students? As I said teachers have to solve a problem in a classroom but in order to do that or help a student, I think, we have to use our time for the student. However, teachers have to be fair to all the students. In the book, a teacher gave a grade a student regardless the fact that other students worked hard although the student had a serious problem. I don’t know what is the right thing to do. There sometimes may parents come and complaint you about unfairness if you use your time to a specific student.

There may be a student who hates reading and, as in this book, ask you what is the point of reading a book? Can you answer to this question? The author says in the book sometimes you have to convince a student and have them study but convincing a student is sometimes difficult but at the same time there is something you could do it to the student. I agree with that so to look carefully each student is very important.

Anyway, as I said above, you can’t expect everything what is going to happen in a classroom so you can never be prepared enough. Therefore I think you have to be flexible and need to watch each student carefully.