Chemical Changes: Crash Course Kids #19.2- Resource Blog 2

The chapter “How Smart Readers Think” provided a lot of great insight to the importance of content area literacy in numerous ways.  Prior to reading the text I had little knowledge of the importance of reading with regards to teaching a math or science class.  One section of the reading stood out to me in particular, “But now as we gaze out into our classrooms, we are not facing rows and rows of future teachers sitting there; they are not little us-es eagerly looking forward to a life of book work (Daniels and Zemelman 38).” This quote highlights the dangers of generalizing based on our own experience; many teachers and future teachers like me performed well in school.  My excellent performance in school can be attributed to the fact I had resources that many other students did not.  My personal experience included a lot of out of school advantages which includes parents who read, books in the house, and access to additional tutoring.  I recall growing up that my mom was an avid reader and used to read a lot of the classic novels to my sister and I; in addition to encouraging us to read on our own.  My family also had the financial ability to purchase books and hire reading tutors when I was first learning to read.  After reading this section of the chapter I really realized how fortunate I am.  I also realized how my life in school would have been more difficult without out of school advantages.  A lot of future students of mine unfortunately will have parents who are illiterate and or are financially unable to provide additional resources such as books in the house or tutors.  After reading this excerpt I now fully realize that for a lot of my future students I will be one of their only resources for learning how to be a better reader.  This leaves me with a feeling of tremendous responsibility but also with the power of knowing that I can be someone to provide exceptional help and skills to students in need.   Word count: 344