Chapter 4: Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading

            The chapter, “Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading”, was interesting and made me think about the kinds of reading materials I want to offer my students in the future. What I found really interesting was the section on David Bodanis’ book A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation. I do think it can hard for students to fully understand complex concepts, such as Einstein’s equation, by just reading a few paragraphs in a textbook. Also, if they do understand what they read, it sometimes is only for the assessment they’ll have in that class. Bodanis’ book elaborated on Einstein’s equation and told a story behind what each component of the equation. In this chapter, the authors describe this book as being very engaging and informative. I believe that this is more important because students usually remember topics and concepts that grabbed their attention. This book is also described as a “page-turner”. I would think students will remember something that they wanted to read rather than a textbook they are assigned that can sometimes be confusing or boring. If a teacher does assign these kinds of readings to their students they will have to make the time for the student to read more. I still think reading a more engaging book on one important concept is more beneficial to the student rather than reading a textbook that may not get the whole picture across.

            Another component that I liked about this chapter and that I still question is, what is a balanced diet of reading? As a future teacher, I would like to learn more about what I should assign as readings in my classroom as I obviously would want my students to want to read and to actually read the material assigned. The author went off of two theories about what students should be reading. One was a more classic list that included books that were much older and the other was a list of more modern books. I think I would like to assign some of both, but carefully choose the texts from both areas to make sure they are engaging to my students. I still would like to do some more research on what is more successful in a secondary education classroom.

            My favorite part of the chapter was the section on building a classroom library. I found this part to be interesting because it is something that I did not see in the majority of my high school classrooms but I do think it could be very useful to students. A classroom library provides easy access to different kinds of reading material. Also, it is something teachers don’t have to spend too much money on and if they buy a few books/magazines/etc. each year the cost of the materials might not seem so bad.  I think it is good for students because they can choose what to read and they can use it as references for research papers or lab reports. Also, having books such as the Guinness Book of World Records can provide the students with little facts to broaden their knowledge base. A classroom library is definitely something I would also like to look into and use in the future.