This chapter in Subjects Matter, focused on strategies to help the students in the classroom in which reading and writing are not their strong suits. One of the points that particularly stood out to me in this chapter was to "create supportive relationships" between the teacher and student regarding reading in class (Daniels & Zemelman, p.281). Many students who struggle with reading "feel that adults have somehow abandoned them, or pre concluded that they are failures" which, in school, is something that can have an effect on the students in the future (Daniels & Zemelman, p.281). Therefore, we have to create an environment in our classrooms that is supportive, yet effective in order to have successful readers. In my entire school career, I have never been good at reading. It was always something I could do, but I never excelled in it. It never really effected me or my grades until freshman year of college. I believe if I were to have that support from my teachers in elementary school and/or middle school, I would have been a lot better off.
Though my emphasis is in math, I want to still help my students who struggle with reading because there is so much more to math than just numbers and critical reading is a crucial life skill.
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Alena, you made many great observations in your post! It was very refreshing to hear that you struggled with reading growing up, because I did as well as many others that might not be as comfortable admitting it. Your quote really stuck out to me as well, because we as teachers are supposed to raise our students and encourage them to want to be better, not talk down on them like they are failures. It is our duty to promote learning and striving for better in our students for a better world.
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