I Read It, But I Don't Get It

"I Read It, But I Don't Get It" by Cris Tovani covered a wide range of strategies to use to help students comprehend what they have read. There were many lessons in here directed at teachers to make sure that students get the most out of reading. One of the most important lessons I took away from the book, which was at the very beginning and carried through the strategies was to not let the students give up on their reading. Even if I am teaching senior English, it is never too late for students to get a better understanding of what they read or learn to read in a way for the that works. If I had a teacher with this strategy, I may have comprehended my Science classes better and gotten better grades in my classes even in college. Students may think there is no hope for them past a certain point, but this book shows that there are plenty of ways to help students learn to read and learn to love reading.

Another important lesson that Tovani taught teachers was the importance of modeling. It is one thing to just say "read between the lines" or "think while you are reading," but you are going to get more from students if you model what you are actually asking for. The more you model examples for the students on how something should be done, the more likely they will do it the correct way and then learn from it how they should. Like Tovani says, teach the student don't teach the reading to the students. I ran into this issue in my high school classes when teachers would tell me to "actively read" an article or a textbook. That could mean a variety of things to students who had not been properly taught to actively read something. My junior year English teacher actually modelled how he wanted his students to actively read, and that made all the difference in the world for me not only in that class but for all of my other classes where teachers didn't explicitly say how they wanted teachers to "actively read."

There were so many good strategies and exercises to use with students it would take too much time to talk about them all. But, some of my favorite ones were for a teacher to anticipate where students would struggle with reading and plan strategies to help them overcome those problems, the double entry diary to prepare them for more involved active reading, knowing the voices in your head (I can't tell you how many times I have read a page of something and realized I didn't comprehend any of it and had to reread), strategies for when students are stuck on a reading, and connecting reading to background knowledge. I definitely plan to implement this book and the strategies in the back with my students whenever I get the chance to do so or where I think it is needed to help y students be able to say "I read it, and I get it."

Critical Literacy and Popular Culture in Urban Education

It is important that we as teachers reach into the world of the students so we can relate to them and build a curriculum that is more suitable to them and their needs. This is for a social and cultural benefit and does not stop at including more technology in the classroom. Literacy can come in many forms and this article spends time defining what it is and what it means for our students. What I found important was that being educated in advanced literacy was not enough for success. So many more factors come into play to helping a student succeed in and outside of the classroom. Where they are in the world (ie: post-Katrina New Orleans) affects how and what they learn and how much high literacy will really help them in their future. Literacy does not equal having more power, and the article discusses how knowing literacy can give other people more power rather than yourself. It seemed to be really heavy talk when we are discussing how to teach children in the classroom...

The article then goes on to define different terms that are being discussed in the article. I agree with the three key points of culture: ideal, documentary, and social. The difficult part is working all of these points into the classroom for every student since every students' cultural background will be different. It also discusses that there is much more to academic literacy than practices leading to academic achievement. This goes along with the points made that literacy will help people differently depending on where they come from, where they are, and where they are going. this is why I agree with the last part of the article about teachers needing to be researchers. Maybe not to as much of an extreme as the article suggests, but we as teachers must research about our students to know how to best help them academically, socially, and culturally. Teaching the same thing to every student every day every year will not benefit the students in the way that it should. We need to be adapting at all times for our students. (easier said than done)

A good example that the article gives of using the students' outside knowledge and culture to the advantage of the classroom was through teaching the students arguments. Every student knows how to argue, but they may not know what each part of an argument is and what it takes to make a formal argument. Going with information and ideas that students can relate to and are interested about will get them to learn more and be more motivated in their work. Having the students argue about real world events was a good idea to getting them more involved in the lesson while also getting them to learn.

An important message that the article brings up is that change needs to happen if we are going to help the students. We need to adapt to new technology, new events in the world, and new cultures so the students will stay involved and feel like school is another part of their culture and not an old relic of the past. While classics are important and still can be used in the classroom to read about history or learn about English forms and ideas, they shouldn't only learn about the classics. We need to bring in new things with the old to keep the students involved and excited to learn about literacy in the classroom. If a teacher insists on sticking with the same old ways year in and year out, they better have a good explanation for how it benefits their own students.

A Teacher's Guide to Standards-Based Grading and Reporting

This reading is all about the importance of standards and grading students based standards. I am not sure where I fall when it comes to standards. On the one hand there is not as much wiggle room when it comes to teaching when you are forced to stick to the standards. But, on the other hand, the standards were chosen by professionals and are made to help students learn what they need to learn. It compares students to other students across the state and determines what is best for the students to learn. And having a guideline can be helpful as a teacher. There are pros and cons to both sides, but I don't really have a choice so it is best to learn stragtiegies to teaching standards as best as possible.

The reading says that standards boost the student achievement and motivation to try harder in school. I can see this as the students know they need to reach a certain standard so they are going to try hard to reach that standard. The more progress they make towards that standard, the more motivated they will be. But what if they pass the standard? Will the student stop being motivated?

I believe that students should be graded on their work so that they can see where they are in the class and reaching their standards. If a student misses an assignment, or fails one, I believe that they should get a zero on the assignment. Not putting anything in the grade book and having the students see their grade for the work they did do will make the students less likely to do assignments. And if we only base their final grade on their final assessment, students will be less motivated to do earlier assignments and try throughout the year. Students hsould be graded on most things to see how they did throughout the entire year, not just on the final test. The key to the students not having a bad grade on one assignment they missed or failed is to weight the assignments differently so that it will not affect their grades AS MUCH as a test, but will still affect it.

It is also wierd how the reading says that students' grades should not be averaged, but also says students shouldn't get zeros because this will bring down their average grade. It flip flops a bit on what it wants teachers to do.

Finally I believe that all homework should at the very least be turned in to the teacher to motivate the students to do the homework. I don't think every homework needs to be graded and affect their grades, but I as a teacher want to know that the students are not only doing their assignments but also be able to see  if they are learning the material. This is from a personal stand point as a student: If the hoemwork wasn't graded or needed to be turned in, I wouldn't do it. I want students to be learning and trying while they are in my class.

Standards are always a hot topic when it comes to teaching. It can go either way on if it is beneficial for students, but what I think needs to be the real focus is how you teach the students the standards rather than what you teach them.

TPA Lesson Plan Guidelines

When creating a lesson and planning it with the TPA, you need to know how long the lesson will be. A standard class time is 55 minutes, so you normally want to fill up that much time as much as possible. The difficult part about this is that it is hard to judge how long some parts of the lesson will take because so many things can factor into the day. The students filling out a worksheet may take longer than expected if there is confusion. Or it may take less time if the lesson is too easy. I believe that with experience it will be easier to judge how long things will take for the lesson. It's also important to have a bit of flexibility in the lesson so that if parts take longer or shorter you don't run out of time or end up short on your lesson.

It is also really having a learning objective in every lesson that you plan. This makes it easier not only for the teacher to structure the lesson but also for the students to know what they should be focusing on for the lesson. You should start the lesson with explaining what the objective is so that it is clear to everyone the goal for the day. The objective must also follow a content standard so the students are learning what they need to according to the Common Core.

Depending on the lesson, you don't really need to bring up the vocab, but you need to make sure that all the students know the vocab going into the lesson. If you say a new word that the students don't know you need to make sure that you explain what it means in the context of the lesson so that there is no confusion. the oral and written language bullet point in the TPA confuses me. What is the difference between that and the first bullet? Is it just clarifying more?

Assessment is a difficult section to consider for every single lesson. Since every day will not include homework or a test, it is important to think of how to test the students on what they are learning. An easy way is with an in-class worksheet on what is being taught to be able to check in with the students as they are learning if they are understanding all the way through. It is important to have formative assessments before you give a summative assessment to the students. Measuring every assessment given to the students will force you to make sure each assessment is important and is not just filler.

The research and instruction for the lesson will be one of the more difficult parts of instruction to include in the lesson plan. It is easier to just say that the lesson is good enough to give to students than actually finding proof that it works and should be taught to the students. The material you use also needs to be supported with research and that is also a difficult part to find. The lesson must also connect with past lessons and to future lessons. You really need to be thinking about everything for the lesson to make sure it is as ready as possible to teach to the students. also making sure there is a community connection to the lesson is a struggle to answer. Parents and community need to be as involved as possible. I think with practice it will get easier and easier to do these parts of the TPA.


There is a lot to juggle with filling out a TPA for a lesson plan. IT is not something to be taken lightly. But, once you have filled out every section of the TPA completely, you know that you have a full lesson to give to the students. That is what is so great about the TPA. It has what is essential to make sure the students, and the teacher, get the most out of each lesson that you teach. And that is what is most important. It will take time to get in the groove of writing TPAs but it will be worth it once I am in that groove.