Students struggle with reading comprehension in all subjects, not just in ELA. In the textbook, Sushma Sharma’s physics class was asked a word problem and the students could not, “see what's happening in the problem until a considerable amount of discussion [brought] the picture into focus- exactly the problem that reading researchers say is characteristic of struggling readers (278)." This happens in many math and science classrooms everyday because the students are given similar problems and cannot comprehend what is being said in the problem or what the question is asking the student to find. I find this a very serious concern for all content-area teachers, but especially math and science ones because of the high frequency of use of these type of word problems that require students to understand and comprehend it in order to answer it. In some math and science classes, such as physics, chemistry, algebra, and geometry, most if not all of the questions that are asked in the class are in the form of word problems. What do these teachers do if their students cannot comprehend and answer the questions? Do they explain each and every question in class and in the homework, but let them fail the test because they cannot help them on the tests? No, as content- area teachers we MUST teach our students how to be able to read, comprehend, know what is being asked, and then answer a word problem. If we do not, they will struggle in many math and science classes.
Maegan
(253)
Maegan
(253)
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