Routman - Chapter 8
Comprehension is one of the skills that I have noticed many of my students struggle with. However, comprehension instruction in the classrooms I have observed is sporadic, at best. Therefore, I was very interested to learn more about how to effectively teach comprehension to students in a way that would help them become better readers rather than just teaching them to answer comprehension questions. Reading this chapter brings to mind one of my students who, when asked to talk to me about the page he has just read, frequently just recites the last few words of whatever he has read, regardless of whether it makes sense or forms a complete thought.
One point that really stood out to me in this chapter is that teachers often focus on teaching individual strategies in isolation, but spend significantly less time demonstrating for students how to not just use a strategy but to incorporate meaning-making into reading. Using the "think-aloud" in order to demonstrate for students how a reader thinks while reading, rather than just after reading.
I love that this book urges us, as teachers, to ask meaningful questions rather than just a greater about of surface-level questions. This suggestion can apply to science and social studies as well as reading. We often ask students straight recall questions about stories they have read as a group, multiple choice AR questions on independent reading, multiple choice or true/false questions on science and social studies tests. We almost never ask students to think deeply or form opinions and support those opinions with factual or textual evidence, and yet we are confounded by our students' inability to show evidence of critical thinking.
Chapter Take-Aways
- Teach students to: make connections, self-monitor, find big ideas, visualize, question, infer, and create new ideas
- Overemphasis on comprehension strategies can detract from reading for overall understanding
- Comprehension instruction: 20% comprehension instruction and 80% guided practice
- Use think-alouds to give students access to the mental process behind reading for meaning
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