Nonfiction Reflection

Aha! Paper
Coming into this course, I had many preconceived notions as to how reading what taught and how students responded to this instruction. I thought phonics was the key factor to teaching kids how to read, that nonfiction texts were meant solely for higher level reading, reading assignments were best determined based upon reading level only, answering questions after reading was best for comprehension, and that our current academic system fails to actually teach kids how to read. Throughout the course there have been several instances during class and online sessions that have changed some of these notions. There was also one notion that seemed to be supported during the course.
Primarily, I thought that the best way to teach students how to read was to make sure they had a …show more content…
I do not remember being taught how to read through nonfiction texts. It was something that most students either learned how to do or struggled with throughout their academic careers. For me, I adopted a skimming and scanning approach to find out what I needed to know. If I did try to read the whole text, I would struggle and become frustrated. I now think that, like what was said in class and online, teaching students the importance of reading nonfiction at an early age it very important. It allows students to develop better strategies for reading and fosters a better attitude toward nonfiction texts. It is essential to teach students how to navigate nonfiction texts because those strategies are the basis for future academic and every day reading as an adult. Laying down the ground work early for these skills will allow students to succeed in the future. I especially liked the example that was given about teaching students how to read for understanding in science class and using existing strategies they already have to make students better