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READING ESSENTIAL IN THE CLASSROOM

Reading is Essential to the Secondary Classroom

Angela Mendoza

EDU 6195: Methods of Reading

Dawn Marmo

June 28, 2023

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Reading is essential in the classroom. Reading methods can be established in any content

area in teaching because at one point or another, all students will have to read something,

whether that’s a psychology research article, a mathematical word problem, or a book. It’s

important to note the first thing that should be established in a classroom: student-teacher and

student-student relationships. It’s no wonder why every first day of class begins with icebreakers

and get-to-know-me activities. Knowing who the students are outside the classroom helps to

know or anticipate their learning needs inside the classroom. Not only knowing the students is

important, but having in-depth understanding of teaching styles and strategies is important to

create meaningful learning experiences for the students. These strategies include various literacy

routines that work well in every school subject and address students’ needs within the classroom

with reading. Helping students develop their reading, writing and oral communication skills is

also important to facilitate their acquisition of the class material. There are also various reading

routines useful with this, as well as the social and emotional aspect that accompanies learning,

which can be provided in the form of support from the teacher and other classmates. And finally,

assessment is essential in determining what students have learned, and not simply just

memorized for the sake of a test. Formative assessments are just as important as summative

assessments because they are important for evaluating student’s learning process as they learn

rather than waiting for the final exam. There are various components to address when learning to

teach students, and reading is the first component that should be addressed as it’s a necessary

skill for students to acquire for their education and personal lives.

Teaching Diverse Students

To begin with, establishing that teacher-student relationship is essential in maximizing

student learning. This can be accomplished by beginning to know the students even before they
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enter the classroom. It’s important to learn how to pronounce their name correctly because this is

the first opportunity to make a good first impression. If a teacher mispronounces a student name,

they may feel unappreciated and put-up barriers to prevent any open dialogue to create that

relationship. When classes begin, having students create a culture tree can help teachers know

more about their students, students know more about each other. When students feel heard, they

begin to build their trust in the teacher and themselves and be more willing to risk failure, which

allows students to grow academically and personally (High impact, n.d.). When completing

culture trees, students will have to research information, which involves a lot of reading as they

navigate websites, articles, and even books. Students will be engaged in reading information that

may include new terms and they will be acquiring this knowledge as they will have to present

this to their classmates and teacher. This activity is a socially, culturally, emotional, academic,

and linguistic experience for students to engage in while practicing their reading abilities as they

research their culture. And when they get the opportunity to share their culture trees with each

other, not only will they get to know each other, which fosters connections, but they will be

practicing their listening and speaking skills, which are essential for developing their reading

skills. When students learn in a social environment in which they foster connections, their

diverse characteristics will flourish off each other and no one should feel marginalized or

belittled because all of their abilities will be valued. This activity also serves as a resource for the

teacher to incorporate the students’ cultures within the learning material, so they feel more

connected to it. When students read something they connect with the personal connection grabs

their attention and increases their engagement, which maximizes their learning.

Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge

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Instructional routines are essential in developing content literacy, which can be applied to

all school subject areas. As Fisher (2015) explains, literacy is important for both school and the

student’s personal life. We all learn from listening, reading, writing, and speaking. The routines

allow teachers to engage students in all of these forms during literacy instruction. Fisher’s text

provides 50 instructional routines that address fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and

oral language either before, during, or after reading. All strategies address students’ diverse ways

of learning in meaningful ways. For example, not all students know how to make connections

and ask themselves questions during reading that are important when making sense of a text. So,

the strategy of think-alouds allows teachers to model and explain this behavior for students.

Students learn how to read productively rather than passively so they are able to comprehend the

text. Another example is for students who are more creative and like to engage in hands-on

activities, the strategy of found poems provides this for them. In found poems, students select

specific words and images from the text and create a new text of their own that summarizes the

text, focuses on vocabulary, or addresses key ideas. And another strategy is conversation

roundtables, which allows students to productively collaborate with each other. This is a useful

strategy to get all students engaged in an activity and hold each other accountable to prevent one

student doing all the work in groups, which is common in classrooms. And there are many other

strategies available to create meaningful learning experiences. When a routine works well in a

class, the students sense a purpose in their learning because each task hits a different target in

literacy, all necessary for their acquisition of the content material.

Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication

Reading, writing, and speaking are all forms of communication and forms in which

students can learn. Therefore, incorporating all three forms in the classroom is essential for the
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acquisition of content knowledge, and can be done with various reading methods. As explained

before, all subjects will involve students reading something at one point, so all classrooms should

incorporate reading methods into their instruction. The classroom I observed at Herbet Middle

School included various reading methods in both subjects that had students engaged in reading,

writing, and speaking. For example, in language arts, the teacher had students do close reading

individually and with partners the next day. The students were asked to read the passage and

make annotations on questions, connections, and important details. Already they were engaged in

reading and writing. Then, with their partners, they were asked to read to each other, which now

engaged them in speaking. With speaking they were monitored on their pronunciation, with

writing they were evaluated on spelling, and with reading they were monitored on

comprehension. In this activity, I worked closely with a student that doesn’t know English very

well. He is a multilingual learner, so writing and reading is still complicated for him. We worked

cooperatively, and he was able to practice all three forms as we close-read the passage. He was

able to pronounce most words as he read and understand what his partner said to him, but he was

unable to comprehend when he was reading, which is why he didn’t have any annotations on his

passage from the day before when they worked individually. He also didn’t know how to write

well in English, so when his teacher wrote notes on the smartboard, he was copying down letter

by letter instead of word by word. He wouldn’t have been able to engage with the class and learn

the material because he was missing that aspect of comprehension when reading and writing.

Speaking and listening weren’t an issue for him, but he was missing an important component

necessary for his learning: reading.

Assessment
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Formative assessments allow the students to practice their learning and apply concepts to

deepen comprehension rather than memorizing vocabulary terms and concepts. This can be

achieved with the use of reading strategies. Reading is one of the main ways of obtaining

information. Therefore, incorporating reading in formative assessments is essential to ensure

students are practicing a necessary skill they will need in almost everything they do in life inside

and outside the classroom. And teaching students how to read is important as well during

formative assessments. Students are great at finding ways to obtain that high letter grade without

needing to read the material, so teaching students how to read is important for them to stay

engaged. Formative assessments are like Lego pieces. By themselves, they may appear

insignificant as they are not part of a bigger puzzle piece. But together, they are at the disposition

of the student to use to obtain their end goal: the bigger puzzle piece, otherwise known as the

learning objectives. Reaching the learning objectives is the goal students work towards with the

use of the formative assessments. The final Lego piece isn’t possible without the individual Lego

pieces, just like learning isn’t possible without formative assessments. Formative assessments are

also beneficial for the teacher. These assessments allow teacher to evaluate the students’ learning

progress and monitor their understanding.

Summative assessments are also important in evaluating student outcomes and growth. A

teacher can’t know what the students know if they aren’t given an opportunity to show what they

know. However, how well students do in summative assessments doesn’t necessarily reflect

100% of what students actually know. Students may simply memorize information to spill on to

the test without retaining much in their long-term memory. This is a challenge for teachers

because effective summative assessments must capture most of what students have learned in an

enjoyable and productive way for the students to have that motivation to demonstrate their
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learning. Summative assessments also show instructional effectiveness. If most students get an

answer wrong on a test, the teacher will become aware that perhaps the method used to teach that

concept was ineffective or the question’s wording needs adjusting. This means the teacher would

have to revise or adjust the teaching method for that concept to adapt to the students’ needs since

they weren’t met the previous time. And summative assessments don’t necessarily have to be

tests or exams every time. Summative assessments can include projects, whether individually or

with others, which allow students to apply concepts and may even be more effective in

evaluating students’ understanding of the material as they won’t simply be defining a term but

using it, which requires comprehension and not memorization.

Conclusion

Overall, incorporating reading methods into the classroom is essential in every

classroom. No subject can be taught without students reading. It is critical for students to learn

how to read and comprehend what they read because they will utilize this skill for the rest of

their lives. And being able to adjust to students’ needs while doing so is necessary. Knowing who

the students are as learners and as people is important for creating a meaningful learning

environment so students have meaningful learning experiences.

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References

Fisher, D. (2015). Fifty instructional routines to develop content literacy (Third Edition).

Pearson Education.

High impact instructional strategies for health education. (n.d.). Colorado Department of

Education. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from,

https://sitesed.cde.state.co.us/mod/book/view.php?id=8030&chapterid=8125