Tovani’s I Read it, but I don’t get it

Tovani's I read it, But I don't get it is an amazing read filled with humor and great ideas when it comes to working with challenging students and classrooms. Tovani has worked with students that have mastered the art of "fake reading" to college-bound juniors and seniors who struggle with the different demands of content-area textbooks and novels. I really found the book helpful because I have quite a few students in my classrooms that have mastered the art of "fake-reading" meaning they just don't care what they read or even do the reading. Students have a plethora of resources available to them to get reading done, SparkNotes being just one example. But, while I have students who "fake-read" I also have students who just don't comprehend the reading no matter how hard they tried. I enjoyed seeing that other teachers struggle with these two different types of readers.

What makes me sad is the fact that these two different types of readers can often be confused and mistaken for the other. Students who can't or struggle to comprehend texts can be thought to be "fake-readers." Students get thought bad of because it seems like they just don't care when in turn they are struggling. Students also can turn from readers who don't comprehend texts to those who just don't read or SparkNote the texts because no one helped them when they needed help.

I enjoyed chapter 6 of the book that talked about connecting the new information to the already known information. I think the biggest chunk that teachers should work with is pulling in personal knowledge or personal experience into their classroom curriculum. Too often we worry about cramming too much information into students heads and don't even think about drawing personal connections. Students who can make connections between their personal lives and the things they learn in classrooms are able to learn and retain information better.