I Read It, But I Don't Get It

One chapter that really stood out to me when reading this book was chapter 6, Connecting the New to the Unknown” and I really appreciated the section “This is Language Arts—Who Cares About Social Studies?” I know that when I was in the 7^th grade I did not make many connections between classroom content from history to language arts or math to science. Come to find out when I got to high school all material being taught had a purpose and was being taught concurrently with another class and it “never crossed her [as well as my] mind to use information in one class to help her [me] with another.” Who knew there was a rhyme or reason to the education system. Looking back, I now understand that what I was learning in one class I could use in another. Not always but some of the times. I realized this more in high school when my English and history teacher, all 3 years I was there, co-taught their classes because it made more sense and the content would cross over most of the time.

“Since good readers make connections between the new and the known” it is clear that many students need to be explicitly told that other classes have something to offer in order for students to fully comprehend the material. No teacher in middle school really explained this to me but it makes sense. When using other classes for background and other types of information, this opens doors for  students to be more equipped and will give them a much better understanding of the material.

Even as teachers, it is easy to forget how implicit we may be at times when we have done something enough to make ourselves think that who we are teaching understand it but in reality every year is a new group starting fresh as should our lessons. It is exciting to first teach a lesson because you are slowly learning it too but over time it just becomes repetitive. Taking the time to reinforce what you are teaching will be more beneficial to your students. “By noticing your process as a reader who connects existing knowledge to new knowledge, you will be well on the way to teaching your students how to use the same strategy.”