Reading is Essential

I was always a reader as a kid, and throughout my life as a student, mom, etc. As a scientist, reading was critical. Now, as a teacher, I like to bring "real world reading" into my classroom so my students realize how relevant science is(news articles, etc.) I am trying to use my text more, since taking a reading in the content area class. I used to disregard the text, giving kids the notes they need, showing videos, clips, etc., and of course mostly doing hands on stuff. Now, However, I realize that using the text can really help my students strengthen their reading skills. Content reading instruction enables students to become autonomous learners. Our newly adopted text for life science in Virginia Beach (Glencoe) have an online student edition with a resource called "interactive text". This is a basic version of the text, but it is written with no frills/extra info, at 2 grade levels below 7. The student reads a section, and it also has embedded questions to help guide them in their comprehension of the material. I am looking forward to seeing how this will help students this year. i am pretty "old school" in the philosophy that we are all teachers of reading and writing. To that end, I also taught many math lessons this year. For alot of kids, I feel that science is the class where all the basics are used, and are integrated (that's why science ROCKS!)