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“I Read it, But I Don’t Get it” by Chris Tovani

“I Read it, But I Don’t Get it” by Chris Tovani definitely changed my views on reading within the classroom. This textbook reminded me of my old self back in high school. In high school, I only remember reading a handful of books and to this day I can’t remember the stories. I myself was a fake reader until going to college and like Tovani I realized I had to learn how to read.
The overall structure of the textbook makes reading it a lot of fun. Reading about her personal encounters with students and reading was entertaining. I loved her approach with the book reports, explaining how she even got away with cheating on them. Also, she demonstrates what a successful teacher is; someone willing to go out of their way to facilitate that learning process. It was amazing to experience her struggles as she tried to get her students to learn the various reading strategies she presented.
My favorite part of the text was the car reference when Tovani is trying to explain the reciting voice and the thinking voice. How she is able to relate driving a car to read is brilliant. It actually helped with my understanding of my reading voices. Additionally, Tovani’s “Strategies to ‘Fix Up’ Confusion” section hits home with me. Strategies such as retelling what you read are the strategies I currently use when deciphering the difficult text. Reading rate was a helpful piece for me as a reader as well. Consistently I find myself reading fast in order to get through a text instead of taking the time to understand the text.

As a future teacher, I can see myself implementing a lot of the reading strategy lessons Tovani gives in her textbook. Today it is important for teachers to realize that their students aren’t necessarily informed on how to read text effectively. Even being a college student I feel like reading this text has bettered my reading skills. 

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