Chapter 5: Understanding and Using Texts

Using texts in the classroom involves so much more than choosing which pages your students will read from the textbook. Teachers have a variety of texts to choose from in any content area, and should use all forms of text in the classroom. We live in a world where students will need to be familiar with all types of texts. Teachers must take many factors into account when choosing texts including student movitvation and subject matter familiarity, readability, and the complexity of the task that goes along with the text.

One of the factors that interested me the most is student motivation. I have always been a reader, but there is a bit of a disclaimer: I read voraciously, but I only read what I like. So, while I may love to read, I am not going to tear my way through my biology textbook just because I love the written word. I think there are three levels of reading (there are probably more, but this is a Lisa-ism, so you have to take it as it is): reading with no understanding, reading, and engaging with the text. Reading with no understanding is pretty self-explanatory. This is the reading where you call the words or you read while thinking of something else and remember none of it. Regular old reading is what you do when you've got that biology exam (why am I picking on bio?) and you've got to understand chapters 3-8; you'd much rather be doing something else, but you need that B (or A depending on how much of a perfectionist you are). And finally there is engaging with the text. This is the type of reading where your mom has told you to go to bed, but you sneak a flashlight under the covers and finish that Harry Potter because you have to know what happens. This is the type of reading where you devour that book on string theory because it is so interesting. This is the type of reading where you analyze every word of an e-mail or love note to suss out how your other half feels about you. And this is the type of reading you want your students to experience, because this is the text they are going to remember when they're telling stories at the nursing home.

I think that getting students motivated, getting them engaged with the text, involves a lot of other factors mentioned in this chapter. First, students need to be familiar with the material. I only became interested in string theory and black holes once I got into science fiction and time travel; before that, I wouldn't touch the stuff. Likewise, students are going to have a hard time caring about something they know nothing about. Give them as much background as possible, relate it to their lives, and do what you can to make it fascinating. Second, students need stuff they can read. If it's too hard or too easy, they are going to get bored or frustrated, neither of which lend themselves to motivation. Finally, reading and tasks need to be balanced. If the students have a complicated task, such as DOK 4 analysis, then don't ask them to read 400 pages of Faulknerian sentences on their first go at this type of complex task. Sure they can get there, but you've got to build them up. Imagine if you'd been asked to write one of Mrs. Beaver's lesson plans before you even hit Intro Block. I know that I would have dropped out then and there. Finally, give students strategies for the text they are reading. Show them how to interact with it; tell them what you do when you read that kind of text.

Note: Thank you if you made it to the end of this, for soldiering on through my rambling paragraphs and abundant use of paragraphs. It's late and I'm tired.