Making Reading Relevant for Adolescents by T.W. Bean left me questioning myself and what I allow in my classroom each day. Am I giving my students the opportunity to read what they enjoy? Am I providing the best environment to encourage readers? What more can I do? What books would my students find interesting? How do I choose books that relate to my students for my classroom library? Ultimately, what can I do different now that I have this information?  As I reflect on the 2013-2014 school year thus far, I think about all of the changes that have happened within out school. We have a new Principal and many new staff members (a large amount of them are first year teachers), a brand new reading specialist, no reading interventionist and no real plan for remediation. While I am not opposed to change, I am a firm believer in "if it isn't broke don't fix it". In previous years, we had DEAR time at the beginning of the school year. I love Bean's concept of DEAR and allowing the students to journal about their readings. What a great way for students to have a opportunity to express themselves about what they are reading. This simple technique could increase student engagement for reading and possibly spark students to become more motivated at writing.  The end result could help students become better at comprehending , as well as analyzing the author's perspective. In previous years, students were required to have a book at all times. Books seemed to have an importance within our school. Seldom did you see a student without a book. Partnering that with AR, we had impressive results and our school is not in academic warning for reading. This year, we don't have a full time library attendant, students are not able to check out books at their leisure and at times don't visit the library as often as they should. We no longer utilize Accelerated Reader as a huge motivator in our school, but with all the changes it has not played a role of importance in our school this year. This definitely concerns me since I am in a school with academic warning and next year our school could be at risk of being taken over by the state. As we begin to prepare for the next quarter, I think it is important to bring back some of the things we have done in the past that made us successful. One thing I would love to see happen; with the introduction of PBIS is find readings that are aligned with our schools motto of Respectful, Responsible and Safe. I am currently in the process of finding readings that apply my dynamic of student and look forward to reading their journals which will be like primitive blogging.

Donna Ogle's The Challenge of Content-Area Reading, brought forth an interesting concept of passion vs curriculum. As teachers progress to content experts, their passion for a subject may actually hinder a learners ability to learn. I have to wonder, is a history teacher really teaching their students? The content expert has a passion and love for the subject that has developed over time, the student doesn't. The expectation for the student from the expert is that they should indeed love the subject as much as they do. I can only make a comparison of a farmer and his crops. A farmer's livelihood depends on the crop that is produced. In order to cultivate the land in the proper manner he must plant the seed and care for it. When a content expert reaches a certain level they are assuming the seed of excitement for the subject has been planted.

I am in agreement with Ogle's idea that content experts need to spend more time observing, listening, and strategizing what would help the students stay involved. If content experts could have an equal amount of passion for a subject and excitement to transfer that to a student learners would become more engaged. The process of helping students learn to read and read to learn would be complete.

Taking what I have have read from both articles, I need to step back and let my student drive some of their own learning. Of course, I should find a foundation of the key concepts I need them to know and understand but more student talk and discovery may actually make my job easier.