D & Z Chapters 1&2

Daniels and Zemelman's," Subjects Matter," is definitely a text book worth keeping.  Chapter 1, The Core Purposes of Reading, gave insight to realistic issues regarding literacy today in high schools.  It also gave meaningful suggestions for how to better provide strategies for readings in our classrooms. I particularly liked the two visions of reading and the examples of how teachers taught.  The lesson on Fast Food showed that is had genuinely inspired students to take initiative and do something about what they had learned.  Not only did the students understand what they were learning, they understood why.   Looking back to my high school years I experienced both visions.  I had dedicated teachers who created lessons that inspired me to take action or research further outside of school.  I also had dedicated teachers who assigned text book reading, answering questions from the text and regurgitating the material the next day on a pop quiz to see if we had really read and done the assignment.  Daniels and Zemelman point out that content teachers care about reading, and that studies shoes most teachers are similar to those who assign the reading and questions without providing reading strategies.
As I read the story of the science class I thought about when I am assigned readings in classes that i do not typically enjoy.  Most of the time I do not enjoy the class if it is a topic that does not interest me.  At the college level I know enough that my interest does not really matter, I have to complete the assignment regardless to the best of my ability.  I muster enough courage to get through the gruesome pages with strategies I have learned along the way.  I know if I do not, and simply try to read the text I will end up finishing the text not remembering a single thing I had just read. At the high school level this occurred many times when I was not interested int he reading or if the language was too difficult.  I would have to re and reread the text to fully comprehend the content, and then for what? The next day I would complete a quiz, have a discussion on what we read and move on to the next topic.  I was not particularly moved by any of the information nor did I really care.  I simply read the content because it was assigned.
On the flip side of this, I thoroughly enjoyed completely the exact same type of assignment for my history courses - because I was interested.  But still, I did not take away the amount of meaningful and effective learning as I had from assignments similar to the Fast Food assignment.
In the United States there is the never ending debate on how to close the achievement gap and the search for the perfect recipe for the educational ranking to increase.  The reality is there are so many factors that go into educational achievement and the achievement gap that many of the top countries will never face.  This text was the first in my career at Rhode Island College to point out the fact that non of the top scoring countries "have anywhere near the levels of deep, enduring poverty of America."  Along with poverty is diversity.  We live in a country that is so culturally diverse, and teach in heterogeneous classrooms with different cultural and educational learning styles.  Catering to each cultural norm and style, along with the issues that come along with poverty are factors that affect these scores.  Creating a system of standards that takes all of these factors into account is no simple task.  The Common Core State Standards Initiative, while brand new, has been the topic of debate.  With any implementation of a new system there are pros and cons and reasons for doubts.  The intent behind the initiative is one that makes the most sense in proposals we have seen thus far.  Literacy is involved in all content areas and all teachers are reading teachers in one way or another.  The standards do need fine tuning (which we can find on page 19) however, that will come with time. For now, we can experiment with the standards and measure progress made in literacy since the implementation of the standards.
Chapter 2 was also very interesting and make me assess myself and my reading strategies. The reading lessons the book provided, were frustrating at times.  I am a college student, I know how to read! Yet some passages I did not understand at all! The reading lessons give teachers a perspective of how their students may read certain subjects.  We cannot assume because our students made it to 12th grade AP History that they are 100% able to read the text the same way their teacher is able to read the text. Stressing the stages of reading at all academic levels, even so high as 12th grade is an essential tool that will not only aid the students' comprehension of material but can also decrease the amount of stress and anxiety a student may face when they are asked to read difficult content.  With multiple groups of students we are unable to gauge our students reading ability right away.  Teaching and reviewing reading strategies early in the year will help all students become better, more effective readers.