Chapter 2- Bringing Text To Life

I love the ideas this chapter gives about motivating students to read and making the best use of text! In my classroom, I have had great experiences with readers' theater presentations, debates and socratic seminars and I am looking forward to trying out the text sets.  I also love the idea of giving students opportunities to teach a text to their peers.  I think the best way to learn something is through teaching it.  I used that strategy often when I taught math, but I think it could work equally as effectively with reading comprehension on a deep level.

The case study idea is interesting as well, especially the part about finding an authentic audience. If students had a reason for learning about a topic that involved presenting to others with the idea that some issue could be improved...wow, how powerful that could be!

The BBK Workshop is another technique I want to try with my students because it reminds me of an activity AIG specialists often used to use, (and hopefully still do!)  They would show students a picture of an object that was not easily recognizable, it may be an antique tool or an antique kitchen utensil.  The students could only ask yes or no questions to try to identify it.  The BBK Workshop would take that intriguing activity a step further and give students texts to read after their curiosity was piqued.

"Content area teachers must also become literacy teachers within their discipline."  I agree wholeheartedly with this quote.  Students must be encouraged to read across disciplines and there are so many rich texts that can be brought into the math and science curriculum.  Reading about mathematicians, both past and present, as well as about people like Rachel Carson and John Muir in science would send the message that reading is part of life.  Not simply a school subject.