SED 407 Reading Assignment: Daniels & Zemelman, Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1: Reading for Real was a summary of the difficulties that students confront when reading material in a content area that is unfamiliar to them. According to Daniels & Zemelman (2004), the two main problems that students face are that they are reading the wrong material, and they don’t understand what they read.

The example of the teacher having difficulties teaching photosynthesis was particularly recognizable for me, not only because I’m training to teach biology, but also because I remember similar situations from my own teaching and learning experiences. I liked and agreed with all of the approaches to content area reading, including using a variety of sources of different lengths, some of which are chosen by the students, and encouraging social reading activities with group work.

Overall, I appreciated the idea of changing student approaches to reading and offering a variety of sources that provide context and linkages to student lives. However, I feel a little cautious about the scale of change that they are advocating. I’m not sure how realistic widely interdisciplinary projects and evaluation based on complex performances and exhibitions are in every class at the secondary school level. It seems like these strategies would require a huge restructuring of the current education system. I want to help “the light go off,” in students’ heads, but I know from experience that it isn’t always easy.

Of the two chapters, I found Chapter 2: How Smart Readers Think far more engaging. The cricket passage example was particularly enlightening. When I first read the passage I suspected it might be about cricket, but since I know nothing about the sport the actions and terminology didn’t make any sense. In trying to understand the passage, I noticed that I employed the thinking strategies of good readers that Daniels & Zemelman (2004) described. One strategy that I remember using was that I visualized the competition, trying to organize the two apparent adversaries into columns so that I could keep track of the action. Even though I didn’t know exactly what I was keeping track of, the strategy worked; I was able to answer the questions about the passage with accuracy. It was a very effective example of how it is possible for students to read every word of a passage and do well on a quiz without truly understanding the meaning or context. The breakdown of reading strategies really helped me understand how I process the information that I read. The concept of schemata also helped me understand why I did so well in school and yet can’t remember large chunks of the material that was covered!

Overall, the content of this chapter really emphasized the importance of context. Learning information without context is not only difficult to remember, but also defeats the purpose of trying to understand a new concept. I’m really interested to learn more about the preparation phase of content reading, including how to prepare effective pre-reading activities and encourage predictions about the text.