Tovani: I Read It But I Don't Get It

I really enjoyed Tovani's book. It resonated with me because I could see myself in the children this book is meant to help. I've always enjoyed reading for pleasure; one summer, I can remember choosing to sit down at the library in my grandmother's town and just read all day instead of playing outside. But schooling swiftly killed my love of reading (and writing); coupled with the instant gratification of the internet, I started to loathe having to sit down and read books, especially books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. Not only did I not enjoy the story behind them or get anything out of it the author wanted me to, I didn't understand where the hell my classmates were getting any of their ideas. How are you finding these themes? What do you mean Daisy is the green light that Gatsby is seeing? And then when I finally started to develop my own theories and opinions, I was shot down and told that I was incorrect; "that's not what the author meant." Yeah? How do you know, Mr. Carroll? Did you write the book?

I like what Tovani mentions about asking questions. I think that encouraging students to ask questions, to ask their own questions, is better than just standing at the front of the classroom asking questions of your students. But if you're going to do questions, regardless who asks them, you have to be open to them. You have to be open to the answers that you might receive. When you shoot down an answer, a theory, an idea, the student loses confidence. It doesn't take much to stop students and their participation. Maybe I'm still just a bit hurt from high school, but questions don't have to be shot down. Maybe we had a strict timeline to stick to so entertaining the idea of other theories would have cut into that strict timeline. Who knows? What I do know is that I want to encourage my students to ask questions, to lead discussion, because, in the end, that's one of the only things that matters.