Chapter 2 of Subject Matters made me really think about how people read and understand text. I just loved how the author compared reading to driving. I assume that we would never associate the two, but when I really thought about it and read the texts, it made me really think about my reading skills and how I use many skills unconsciously. Without it being pointed out, I wouldn't think anybody would really think about the different skills they use or actually reflect on how they read so it was interesting to think about it. I do believe, just like driving we learn to start slowly and is steady on our readings. However, the more we read and improve our reading skills, we develop more skills and start to do it without even thinking about it. As described in the text, we learn to multitask, and although one may think understanding a passage is extremely challenging, like the first time driving, if they take it slow and read through the text, they soon realize it's not a problem and incorporate other skills without noticing.
Furthermore, I agree with the author on how students or readers understand the text given to them because they have prior knowledge or have an idea of the topics in the readings. Unfortunately, that is not always they case and like again, knowledge needs to start from somewhere. So as teachers, we are here to help them succeed in reading the texts by introducing these contents and subject to these students for them to be able to accomplish the readings. And so overall, I believe this goes back to the classic idea of teachers being the student’s support, in which this case is to help them understand content to comprehend texts.
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As I read through the text, the subject of driving a car and reading also caught my attention. I think it is so interesting how relatable the two subjects are, and how we unconsciously get from point A to point B due to our prior knowledge. I agree with the statement that you made about how as teachers we must support students in their learning because we have to give our students the opportunity to reach their full potential in the classroom, and I do not believe that will happen on their own.
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Great topic! I actually did not think about the driving relating to reading in much detail, but after reading your post and hearing your thoughts it is definitely a really good comparison. I actually have driven to school in high school a couple times and could not remember how I got there, but I just did because of my schema from driving there everyday. I do not have to think as consciously on where to go because I have done it for so long. However just like reading, driving will always take concentration because of how dangerous it can be to not pay attention to the detail. Reading will always need that same amount of concentration and focus that is taught to our students.
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