14)As Burnett is keen to show, these attitudes are changing, but slowly. Teachers on the secondary level are still hesitant to get involved in reading instruction. They see themselves as teachers of content. But, perhaps, as Summers states, maybe the content area teachers are hesitant because they, along with many language arts teachers, aren’t properly trained to provide reading instruction.Regardless of content area, all teachers are seeing the same nightmares. Bintz categorizes these as either student based, teacher based, textbook based or someone else’s problem. According to a cross section of teachers, students either can’t read , or are passive and reluctant to read. Many teachers feel that other teachers are the teachers of reading, not themselves. Some also feel that textbooks are often written at levels that are too complex and that are strictly content driven, if not downright boring. If not that problem, many teachers feel that “ a single textbook cant … accommodate … students wide range of reading abilities.” (Bintz 21)Although this article is ripe with the nightmares of reading, it is not barren of solution possibilities. To sum them up, Bintz points out that colleges and universities must rethink the role of reading education within the teacher curriculum. Elementary, junior and senior high schools need to help themselves by intentionally and systematically making reading a high priority with students and teachers. Also, they need to help students and teachers change their perceptions of reading in order to create a new reality that sees reading less as a nagging problem, and more as a tool for learning and thinking.As we had discussed in class the first week, it is evident that we all experience these nightmares. It seemed that our small group fit in very well with what Bintz is saying. We all have reading nightmares, and they are all similar. All of the comments...
