Terri Gowdy – Blog post 4 – November – Routman- Ch. 8: Teach Comprehension

I so appreciated the perspective on comprehension from this chapter. I know we want to develop deep thinkers that can analyze and apply what they have read to what they already know, but getting my students to independently seek to do that can be a struggle! In an effort to share strategies, sometimes my students seem to get caught up in that as opposed to reading for overall meaning. It was helpful to be reminded to “keep the act of reading predominate.” Limiting the explicit instruction time to about one fifth seems wise, and focusing on helping them monitor and regulate their comprehension is the goal I am aiming to achieve! Routman helped me re-focus on the key processes of comprehension (predicting, questioning, creating images, seeking clarification, and constructing summaries), and then provided some great examples of the most effective strategies her research has found to support these processes. I found this chapter has refocused my efforts on what I believe to be the most important feature good readers need… Comprehension. While I do check comprehension during individual conferencing, I will strive to go beyond just teaching strategies. While implementing strategies and attaining fluency are certainly important in developing good readers, if my students are simply focused on the strategy, and do not understand what they are reading, or are not reading for the information to be gained, then I am failing them as a teacher!