The first thing that stuck out to me while reading these chapters was the quote on page 13, "Reading is thinking." As we have spent most of the years of our lives becoming better readers, sometimes it is easy to forget the struggle that younger readers have. When we read a book, cracking the alphabetic code and interpreting the letters on the page as words, and interpreting the meaning of those words is very automatic, as we have had years of practice. Younger readers have to put a lot more comprehensive energy into those tasks. They have to think about how to say each word, how to put the proper inflection in each sentence AND think to understand what they just read means. So it is our job as teachers to teach and reinforce comprehension strategies to help readers not just read, but think.
On page 24 the book contains a quote from Trabasso and Bouchard, "There is very strong empirical, scientific evidence that the instruction of more than one strategy in a natural context leads to the acquisition and use of reading comprehension strategies and transfers to standardized comprehension tests." When planning lessons/units it will be a goal of mine to include what strategies I will incorporate while teaching. The more times I incorporate and hammer these points and strategies, the more likely the students will embrace them and put them to use. While the students learn from these strategies, there should be assessments that show what the students have learned about them and how to use them. This will provide a way for us the teachers to assess our job of teaching the strategies. If we teach the lesson/strategies the same way multiple times without finding out how effective our instruction was, how can we be sure the students are learning and effectively implementing the strategies? With this in mind, it is important to model the strategies in a variety of ways so that students who learn in many different ways can grasp the information and succeed.
Another meaningful passage brought back memories of elementary school. Reading through the textbook chapters, or even novels we read in class was to answer the questions on worksheets or the end of unit test. However, reading should be with purpose, as it will be much more meaningful. By teaching and modeling multiple comprehension strategies, and reinforcing that reading is to learn and gain knowledge, students will be set up for success.
A quote that made me laugh was "Reading assessments, like rodents, run rampant." I thought that was a good comparison.
When teaching my literacy unit, I am excited to introduce multiple comprehension strategies. However, I am also apprehensive. I will be referencing chapter 4 in Strategies That Work quite often, as I found it very helpful
I especially like your emphasis on making things 'meaningful.' We've heard this concept in so many classes and its nice to see this book reference it in terms of comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI really liked when they were saying the writer began at 9 because they had two things happening in their head both their own story and wanting to find what was next. If we can take these strategies and ways of thinking to the classroom we will have meaning and motivation.
The book also makes it more meaningful to students when they suggest keeping a chart in the room with student responses to what reading is. I keep watching my mentor teacher do these things. She will sit with our 4th grade class and listen to their responses for choosing a good book, or being a good reader, ect. Then the list is created to make the rules or criteria. Its almost like having students make their own rubric in high school. What needs to happen with reading can become meaningful to the students.
I also have to add about the part to do with language. This makes a lot of sense. My school is implementing school wide behavior plans and we are constantly taught to use the same language. The CHAMPS behavior program lays it all out and it works wonderfully. It would make sense to do the same thing with reading strategies. We should all be using 'background knowledge' to explain. Students will have the opportunity to build off of their previous knowledge and grow from there.
While I was reading in Strategies that Work, I was thinking about how the reasons that I love reading really correlate with what it means to be a good reader. For example, Danielle mentioned how the text discusses reading as a meaningful task and Louis wrote about how reading is thinking. Much of the reason that I find reading to be enjoyable is because I find it meaningful and it makes me think. I love being completely ‘sucked in’ and totally engaged into a book. I love to think about myself as being in the place of the characters and I love pondering how the text relates to my life. None of this is possible if I am unable to comprehend a text. Even more, the different comprehension strategies (questioning, inferring, visualizing, determining importance, using background knowledge) are essentially more ways of interacting with the text and therefore should make reading more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteLouis wrote about the importance of teaching and modeling various comprehension strategies. Strategies that Work emphasizes this point a lot and discusses, several times, the importance of explicit instruction in the classroom. Further, the strategies should be taught in a way that includes the gradual release of responsibility. From my experience so far, I could not agree more. The teacher in the classroom across the hall from me talks about this exact idea. She calls it the “I do, we do, you do” method, where she models, the class does it together, and then the students can do it independently. When I think back to many things that I learn, this is the format I naturally use. When I was learning to waitress, for example, first, I watched another girl wait tables. Then, I shared the job with another girl right with me. Finally, I was able to waitress on my own. If my trainer had just assumed that I would know what to do by a brief spoken instructions, I would have been so nervous, timid, and not prepared to waitress on my own. It is so clear to me why explicit instruction with the gradual release of responsibility is important.
Okemos uses the Reading Street program as its tool for reading instruction. Comprehension strategies are a very important part of reading street. There are worksheets about these strategies and they are tested every week. Also, in the various stories that are read, there is text in the margin to model the comprehension strategies. A large downfall that I see with the way Reading Street is set up is that it causes reading to seem very inauthentic. Strategies that Work mentions the importance of authenticity. I agree that a large part of making reading meaningful is to demonstrate and emphasize that reading is an authentic activity.
I was excited to read the article by Kersten and Pardo. Because Okemos uses Reading Street, I am very curious to learn about how a basal program can be a part of great teaching. I am encouraged to know that there are teachers who are successfully using mandated materials, like Reading Street, by hybridizing or finessing the program.
After these readings, I am left with thoughts of time. Obviously, classroom time is limited, which is continuously a challenge. Secondly, the more I read and discuss education, the more I am convinced that being a great teacher takes a lot of time. Even outside the classroom time is limited and life has many demands. Somehow, I suppose, life is all really just a balancing act.