Synthesis
Blog 2
The
passage “Help for Struggling Readers” greatly demonstrated a variety of techniques
to help struggling readers as well as explaining and analyzing why many
students are behind. The segment on
creating supportive relationships to help struggling readers really stood out
to me as an exceptional technique. The quote,
“People who have repeatedly failed at something usually cope by focusing their
lives elsewhere to avoid still more failure” (Daniels and Zemelman 280). This quote illustrates the fact that
struggling readers will often divert more of their effort to subjects such as
math, science or foreign language, and therefore it is critical that they have
teachers willing to support them. I was
able to relate this concept back to my own experience in school. I recall struggling in English a lot particularly
in high school. I saw myself as someone
who was just plain bad at English, so I focused more on math and science since
I experienced more success in these subjects.
I recall having a few very supportive math teachers around this time who
encouraged my success and I therefore felt more motivated to try and succeed in
their class. In addition to describing
the thoughts of struggling readers, this excerpt also described the importance
of teachers placing themselves on students’ level and letting student know they
understand what it is like to have trouble in school. I believe this technique would have been very
helpful for me during my schooling as well as for other students. I recall always thinking teachers were against
their students and were not real or relatable people. I think it is so important for students to feel
as though their teacher is on their side and wants them to succeed. Overall, I feel it is critical for students
to feel as though they are in a supportive environment, so they can feel that
the classroom is a safe space for learning and for success as well. Word count: 322
Marin,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog because I can relate a lot to how you felt towards teachers. In middle school I really struggled with English class and I had a very unapproachable teacher. It was to the point I feared going to that class because no matter what, she would ask me to go to the board and do the exercise in front of the class. Being a very shy student, this only made matters worse. It made me believe that she was okay with embarrassing me and, as a middle schooler, I believed she enjoyed watching me struggle. Obviously, looking back, I think she thought this would be a way to help me learn the material. I learned from her that it is so important to understand your students and try to learn what teaching skills work best for them.
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