Chapter 7 Catching Readers

Jared Weisberg
October 6th, 2014
Chapter 7


This chapter was very eye opening for me in the aspect that I was unaware of how many terrific suggestions their were for teachers.  But what I found to be most intriguing was the story of Rachel Coelho who was a first year teacher trying to teach children whose first language is not English.  When reading what Rachel had to deal with it made me wonder if I would ever be placed in her shoes.  I'll admit that I would be very nervous and worried because I've always thought that every student whose first language is English wouldn't struggle with reading.  However, this is not the point the chapter was emphasizing.  This chapter informed me that we as teachers need to understand we can face many obstacles and one of the major ones would be teaching children to read whose first language is not English.  When reading this chapter I was catching myself reflecting on my past Elementary School memories and the times when I struggled as a reader as well as observing friends who struggled too.  For instance, when I was younger I only wanted to read picture books because I was intimidated by longer texts with words I wouldn't understand or know how to pronounce.  As a result, I had to work one on one with a special teacher who taught me to step out of my comfort zone and she challenged me as a reader.  What she did that I noticed the chapter discussed for teacher suggestions was, she was always finding books that sparked my interest.  She would ask me whose my favorite athlete, sports team, food or other similar topics and she would come back with books that had the topic of my personal interest.  She slowly engaged me into the easier books and would always give me positive feedback making me feel like I was becoming a better reader.  Then after a few weeks of working with this special teacher, I was acknowledging that I had become a very strong reader because I was beginning to read chapter books on my own with no pictures!  As one can see, what this teacher conducted was two simple suggestions this chapter stated.  First, always celebrate every learning achievement your struggling reader makes and secondly, take the time to know your students and use this knowledge to connect with them.  If I implement these teacher suggestions that the end of the chapter stated, I have a great deal of confidence in myself that I will get each and every one of my students to become stronger readers.