Honesty and Selfishness

The two driving principles that I took away from Tovani’s book were centering reading around a sense of honesty and selfish motivations. I appreciated these aspects of the book because they provided pragmatic and realistic approaches to very challenging situations.

Tovani's strategies of using honesty in teaching reading struck me most in her encouragement of being transparent with students about the purpose of their reading, letting them in on the “so what” or the “why” of their reading. Tovani states (2004), "...teachers have to be clear in their reasons for assigning the reading. Students need to know what those reasons are so they can better determine what is important" (p. 52). Not only does this strategy outline goals for students more clearly, but it also provides a strong opportunity for students to be more engaged in the reading because they have been given a clear purpose for doing so. I know I might have been more inclined to do my reading in high school had my teachers told me exactly why this was important because I may have understood that there was an actual reason for doing it, instead of being "busywork".

This obviously requires knowing your students, something she accomplishes through Conversation Calendars, which allow her to have daily personal and individual connections with her students. I think this strategy is important in that it creates a person connection to students building a relationship with them, and it allows the teacher to understand ways in which she can motivate her students. Another way I might accomplish this is through asking students what matters to them and directing the conversations a bit more. This strategy might manifest itself in a type of open-mic activity for the first ten or last ten minutes of class. You could provide students with a topic and allow them to voice their opinions on it. Good questions or topics might revolve around their goals, their likes, their dislikes, etc. Students could respond in writing or aloud in a class discussion.

Another way in which Tovani uses her honest approach is to get the students buy-in by asking them to be “selfish” with their reading. Encourage them to ask the question, “What am I going to get out of reading this?” or, "How is doing this reading going to help me in any way?" In this way, the learning becomes self-motivated and therefore more student-centered.

However, I think it is important to consider realistic answers to the question, “What am I going to get out of reading this?” Not all students will be motivated by the fact that they will get to understand more complex thoughts or exposed to new genres, making them a more well rounded reader. Many students will likely be motivated by the fact that it will help them graduate, or help them pass a specific course, getting them somewhere they want to be. It seems important not only to encourage this “selfish” motivation, but also to understand what exactly these students’ “selfish” needs may be, and to understand that their reasons for reading are likely very different than your own.