Post #2: Cris Tovani "Why Do I Have to Read This?" Chapter 3 Analysis

    In Chapter 3 - The Masks of Anger and Apathy, Tovani explains the challenges of teaching apathetic students, promoting inquiry and connection with these students, and different strategies that can be used to engage and intrigue apathetic students. In my short time so far in the classroom, I have seen and worked with numerous students, similar to Mack, who are disinterested and struggle to any get any work done in and outside of class, so Tovani's insights and personal experiences spoke to me on a personal level. 

    As Tovani states, working with apathetic students can be frustrating. However, I was really drawn to her advice about using a "little honest modeling" because this is something I have done in my time in the classroom (Tovani, Pg. 49). The reality is that not every student is going to be motivated and interested about the content you are teaching. Apathetic students need that little "push" to spark their inquiry and grab their attention. One of the ways Tovani discusses doing this is by trying to connect to students on a personal level and demonstrate that you truly care about his/her thinking (Tovani, Pg. 51). Tovani also mentions trying to use information from the past to inform the present. As an aspiring social studies teacher, this really spoke volumes. From the perspective of a student, why should they care about an event that happened hundreds of years ago? However, if we can make modern connections with information from the past, students, especially those who struggle to engage with the material, may be able to understand the purpose of their learning and foster their individual inquiry. Lastly, in relation to modeling, the other aspect of Tovani's recommendations that grabbed my attention was her advice to not make questions too "teachery." When teachers form questions for students to answer, we often forget that while the language of the question(s) may seem easy for us to comprehend, it may not be for students. Overly wordy questions can be intimidating to all students, but for apathetic students who already struggle to stay engaged, overly descriptive questions can cause them to shut down altogether. The bottom line here is that if possible, simplifying our dialect if both our speech and our instruction can be a simple differentiation tactic to help engage apathetic students in course content. 

    To conclude, over the duration of our teaching careers, it is inevitable that we come across students who are apathetic, lack enthusiasm, and have no desire to participate/engage in class. However, with some slight modeling, change in perspective, and reduction of verbiage, we as teachers have the capability of stimulating inquiry and engagement in even our most apathetic students. 

Comments

  1. Allison GuzmanSeptember 30, 2022 at 3:47 PM

    Hello Blake,
    I like how you were able to relate what you read in Tovani's passage into your content area. I think that as teachers in the content areas that we love it is easy to forget that not everyone is going to feel the same passion. Of course we would love them to, but we just have to be realistic. I feel like connecting to their personal experiences is important especially in social studies so that they can see how the past has impacted the present. In addition, I feel like in social studies there are so many open ended that can be asked to the students in order to get their brain juices flowing to build connection. For example, showing them an historic picture and asking their thoughts on it. I feel like this is an incredible way to see the different responses from student and how differently or similarly they interpret something. I just think that it is very interesting how different students think and how that impact the responses they give in the class.
    Overall, I loved reading you analysis it was so interesting to be able to read from perspective of an aspiring social studies teacher.
    Allison Guzman

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