Tompkins Ch 2 and 7

I have always struggled with reading. I was held back a grade and went through many tutors before I was finally able to function along side my peers. The two biggest factors affected my reading as a child and that still effect my reading now are motivation and purpose. When I was a child I had little to no motivation to read. I had had many bad experiences connected to reading and had no interest to create more. I was also faced with few situations where I couldn’t find another way to get the information I wanted from another source (parents, friends, pictures, context, and so on). Today most of my reading is motivated by grades, wanting to be a good teacher, and the desire to escape into a good story. I feel motivation is a big factor for many of my students. Often in schools students are forced to read about subjects they have little to no interest in. Teachers refuse to bend their definition of appropriate reading material in order to accommodate students interest and because of this some students lose interest in reading. As I mentioned before, my reading is not only affected by motivation but also purpose. When I was little I often missed the purpose of the material I was given to read. Because no one explained the purpose to me I assumed there was none. And why should I waste my time reading something that serves no purpose? I needed something to connect the material to make it relevant and meaning full for me. Even now when I read I need to have a purpose in mind. I like to know what I should be focusing on in the text, what questions I am trying to answer, and so on. Students don’t assume that just because the teacher assigns some reading that it is meaningful. The teacher needs to give them a purpose or connection to make the material worth while and memorable. Without some kind of focus of connection the ideas within the text will quickly fade.