Your Case Study/Reflection paper should be 5-7 pages in length (typed, double spaced, 12 point font).

It
should include links to course materials and/or additional readings and will consist of two parts:
PART I:
"All teachers are teachers of reading..."
Using everything you have learned this semester, respond to this statement
Use evidence based on your experiences
Give stories/narratives/real life examples from this semester
PART II:
How will you use what you learned with your subject area?
Include a minimum of five content specific applications

Part 1:
I completely agree with the statement All teachers are teachers of reading for a variety of
reasons. Some of these reasons are very obvious and others are a little more subtle and it takes
some thinking to tease them out of the situation. Reading is something that in todays society is
a requirement for any of our students to be successful in life. We have to provide them with
this fundamental skill. Also reading is the foundation for any learning, the process is much
smoother and meaningful with the ability to read. Without reading people would only learn
new things through trial and error processes, which means that our species would not have
made the advances that we have over the last few hundred years. There is no better skill that
we can pass on to our students then reading, no matter what they take from our content areas
as long as they can read the material that we present to them and understand it then that it
what is important.
Reading is currently a standard that is required by law for all teachers to focus on no
matter the content area. This shows the importance of reading in todays society and the focus
and commitment that our education system has placed on just this one area of education. This
applies to all content areas, from Art, English, and History etc. no one content area is exempt
from this standard. If you think about how much you actually read in your everyday life though
it is not very difficult to understand why this is a standard. You see writing everywhere we turn
these days and where there is writing there will be reading to interpret the message that is
written. Without this ability life becomes very difficult. I know of one student in the area that a
family member of mine works with and he is illiterate and it makes any kind of schooling very
difficult. The foundation for learning was not placed properly for this student and it is the
student that suffers in the end. Not to mention the social implications that must be there by
not being able to read. I am sure that most people do not understand his illiteracy and ask
questions about it, which can lead to stress for the student. As we all learned in the Willis
reading for class any kind of stress can shut down the physical ability to learn for any student.
By not fitting a social norm this can lead to a very stressful situation especially for a high school
student that already has the situation of going through puberty and the amount of hormones
they have running through their bodies as it is. Adding additional stress to an already stressful
time is something that should be avoided at all costs.
We also have a responsibility to teach the types of reading that professionals in our
content areas read. By the end of high school most students I think know what they want to do
for a career or at least understand what areas of school they are better at, for example I am
horrible at English. It is not something that I personally understand or enjoy so I knew in high
school that was a subject area that I was not interested in pursuing in college. Because students
are starting to specialize in high school it is only fair to expose them to peer review journals or
more advanced technical writings. Our responsibility is not just to expose them to these
materials, but to also make sure that they can comprehend what they are reading. There are
tons of strategies out there to assess a students comprehension of the material that they read
for your class. The book from class gives us some ideas such as the book mark technique, kwls
or paired questioning just to name a few. Learning to read and comprehend in one subject
matter though is not all that important of a skill when you consider other aspects of reading.
The major importance of reading is that all subjects are connected once you think about
reading as the glue that holds them all together. Science, English, History, Art can all be
connected buy what we read. This example was used repeatedly in class, but consider the
Salem Witch trials. Depending on the types of readings selected for each of the above content
areas students could be learning all different types of aspects about the same subject. The
medical reasons that lead to accusations of being a witch, the literature at the time being
written or the art produced depicting the trials. All these connect providing the students with a
more total picture on the subject of the Witch trials, it would just take some collaboration and
specific reading selections to provide this kind of learning experience. By showing those
different connections to the same subject, we are also providing the opportunity for short term
memories being converted into long term memories as described by the Willis book.
When one considers all of the above facts about reading in todays world it is not hard
to see that all teachers are teachers of reading. Whether it is us teaching them the very
technical reading of scientific material or the memories of a famous artist or historical
documentary. Everything in reading is connected in more than one way making no one subject
exempt from teaching students how to read. In todays society a student cannot go without
being able to read and not just read but comprehend what exactly they are reading. It is just
not possible to be a functioning member of society and not be able to read. If one cannot read
they thus cannot write and all formal learning becomes very difficult in society today if not
impossible. We as future teachers need to keep the information taught in this class in the backs
of our minds as we progress in the program for the betterment of our students and their lives.
Part 2: Include a minimum of five content specific applications

How will you use what you learned with your subject area?
Part 2:
There are many different ways that I think I can use the various material that I have learned
in this class to my subject area. The first is going to have to be the idea of priming the pump for
learning. I think that as a science teacher there are a couple of different ways that this strategy
can work very well, particularly if you show the students something novel or unexpected. As I
addressed in class I had a science teacher show us Mercury and that is the only time I have ever
encountered that element and it was a very interesting experience that I carry with me to this
day. It is just a strategy that is easy to incorporate into the science content area and I defiantly
plan on using it to the full potential once I am a teacher.
Another way I am going to use something that was learned in this class is to utilize graphic
organizers. I have used them myself so many times to organize very difficult concepts in
Biology. Take the multiple steps involved with cellular respiration or photosynthesis, these are
very complex reactions that occur in cells and the graphic organizer is just a way to simplify the
material to better understand what is going on. This simplification makes it much easier to
learn because it is something that can be easily rehearsed and gone over in small groups with
each person in the group remembering different parts of the process and as a group they could
complete the entire pathway in a very short amount of time. Also by drawing out the pathways
over and over I also feel that this can help me more hands on or visual learners in the class.
The visual verbal strategy is probably the best strategy that we learned for the introduction
of some of the very technical vocabulary that is associated with the various science class that I
could be teaching. This technique is one that the students will get the word, have to look up the
definition and the give a visual representation. This could help my students with making the
connection that they need with the material that is needed to actually learn what is being
taught.
I am also very happy to try and never use the round robin technique. After taking this
class and learning other varieties of reading strategies I was very relieved to learn other ways to
get the material to the students. Such as breaking them into pairs and have them read to each
other or do one of the many interactive reading strategies that we learned about. One that I am
interested in that I read about in my ELL case studies that worked well for those science
teachers, was to have students sit back to back and read to each other out loud. This takes
away the pressure they said of reading to another person because you cannot see them looking
at you. I never thought about it in this manner before but once you take away the fact that
other students are watching you reading out loud is not all that difficult. By having the students
break into pairs that work well with each other you may be able to remove some of the fear
associated with reading the complicated vocabulary found in science. Any strategy is better I
feel then making your poor students participate in round robin reading.
The last strategy that I am really looking forward to trying in my class is alternative
representation. I just seems like such a fun way to get students involved with what they are
learning. I really want to try and teach in an inner city school, I really think that I will enjoy it
and can relate to the students in some ways. So if I find out that most of my students enjoy rap
music well I think that it would be fun to rap about science. This would also be a way to involve
math with the lesson since keeping rhythm is all about counting and math. It also allows me to
connect with their culture and if I were to create a rap with them I could defiantly learn
something from them. This would help facilitate the connections that I will trying to establish
with them and by them being the teacher for this lesson could build a stronger bond, resulting
in a better learning environment for everyone.
While there are some many things that I have learned from this class the above five are
the ones that I think are most applicable to science. They are also ones that I find more
enjoyable and I think so will my students. When it comes to learning I feel that if you are not
having fun then you are doing something wrong. Not everything needs to be serious all the
time and that is something that I am a firm believer in and hope that I can show my students
that we can really have fun and still learn.