Chapter 4 post

This chapter had some good ideas that I hope to use one day when I become a teacher (God willing). The note at the beginning of the chapter to George illustrates a common action that I saw in the public schools, how teachers would sometime explain the answer to a question, but not how one could mentally go about figuring out the answer on their own. Also, the list of strategies for teachers to use to teach comprehension made a lot of sense to me, particularly comparing and contrasting, connecting to prior experiences, questioning the text, and recognizing the author’s purpose. When I read the Direct Instruction vs. Scripted Instruction part I was originally drawn to say that I would never use scripted instruction and that spontaneous teachable moments were better, but after I reflected on it I came to my senses and remembered that the ‘truth is always in the middle’ and that as smart as I think I am, I can and should always learn from others. As for near the of the chapter when they start talking about how as a teacher one might have to sacrifice teaching their content to teach reading and comprehension, but my thought was that the first duty of a English teacher is to make sure their students can read written words and comprehend the work of those before us.