Helping Struggling Readers: What Did I Just Read?

            Something that resonated with me was actually the first idea and example that was presented in the chapter. The example was about the students reading about the falcon diving for the rabbit problem. I remember when I was in school, students would struggle with word problems like this because they did not understand why, or what, objects were involved. I know a few people said just let me solve equations and get it over with. There were sometimes I thought the same thing myself. The example also led me to think of a more recent experience I had with students struggling with word problems. Last year, I was working with fourth and fifth grade students in an afterschool program. I felt like I had established a good relationship with the students. They would come to me for help on their problems, and I think they trusted that I would help them the best I could. What I helped them with, though, was the mathematics parts of the problems they were doing. I wish I would have focused on using think alouds more with the students so that they could not only understand how to solve the problem, but how to read and decipher the problem because they struggled the most with understanding what the problem was asking them to do. I think having a good relationship with the students led to them definitely trying harder, but I think using the think alouds would have helped them have an easier time with the problems.

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