Synthesis Blog #2

After reading chapter eleven about helping struggling readers, I realized I completely connected with one specific section of the reading. When I was reading the strategies for helping students who struggled with reading I distinctly remembered when I was in twelfth grade British Literature. My teacher would always have our class engage with our readings whether it be a short story, poem, etc. I remember having to act out the scenes in the epic, Beowulf. A lot of my classmates felt that Beowulf was an extremely boring text to read with a lot of confusing words. Considering this story was written in Old English, it was very imaginable that students would not quite comprehend the text. My teacher knew students were not understanding the text, so she made us walk outside and get in groups to reenact scenes from each Act. This allowed for me and my classmates to really engage with the text in a way we had not before. For me, Beowulf started to make so much more sense after acting out the scenes. The students at Downers Grove South High School had similar reactions to this method. “Once students experienced some physical, visual, and auditory involvement, they more readily continued it as they moved into their reading” (Daniels and Zemelman 286). Engaging with texts through role-play is an excellent way for students to visually comprehend their text, and it allows them to get more excited about their readings.

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