Do I Realy Have to Teach Reading?

Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? 

 This is an important question that many teachers have to ask themselves. As a physical education instructor, I had not viewed myself as someone who taught reading. It was my job to teach kids how to be physical and how to develop healthy attitudes about eating and nutrition. On many occasions I've read through the New Mexico state standards and benchmarks for physical education and they never had anything about reading and writing.

This brings me back to the original question, “Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?” This is more than just a question it is the title to the book I chose to read for our class.

        “Do I Really Have to Teach Reading” --- by Chris Tovani   Content Comprehension grades 6-12

You can get a coppy at http://www.amazon.com/

Chris Tovani is a full-time teacher working at Smoky Hill high school in Aurora, Colorado. She divides her time during the day by teaching three morning classes, two in reading workshops for students struggling reading, grades 9-11, and one in English to college bound juniors and seniors. In the afternoons she works with other teachers in all disciplines. She and these teachers have become motivated to help their students understand difficult text such as math, science, and social studies.

In addition to teaching full-time at Smoky Hill high school, Ms. Tovani travels the country teaching middle and high school teachers how to help students in comprehension strategies.  In her book, “Do I Really Have to Teach Reading”, Ms. Tovani writes “more and more of my instruction with students at my high school and with teachers nationally is in the content areas, because teachers outside of English classrooms are being called upon to assist struggling readers throughout the day.”

In her early years as a teacher she was frustrated by students who could read fluently, but were unable to comprehend what they read. She knew it could to be done, but she didn't know how. Later in her career she involved herself in a nonprofit group called the Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC).  Through her involvement with the PEBC, Ms. Tovani became interested in a body of research called “certain strategies used by proficient readers of all ages.”  It is this research on proficient readers that has inspired her to pursue her work of teaching students and teachers.

On my next post I will start introducing my readers to some of the ideas strategies and tactics that are introduced in Chapter 1.

A personal note, I chose this book because of the title “Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?”  We were all given a list of books to choose from, but this title caught my attention. In many ways it mirrored some of my thinking. I'm no fool I know you can't judge a book by its cover, or even its title. Deep down I knew that it would answer some of the questions that I would need to make it through this class. That it would be written in a way to reach out to content instructors who might not view themselves as reading teachers.

Those of you that have read my earlier posts know that I'm dyslexic. Reading and writing never came natural to me. From my own experience I know that reading and comprehension is essential to our students’ success.  Do I have to teach reading? My answer is yes. My students may not read as much in my PE class as they do in English, social studies, or literature. But they do have to read and comprehend what they read. They have to read and comprehend instructions to games and activities. They have to read current events, both physical and nutritional. Reading is reading!