Donna Lowe Blog Post for December: Routman, Chapter 8

I really enjoyed this chapter on teaching comprehension. So often as primary teachers we are seen as the ones who teach children how to read - meaning how to read words..  What's missing is when we focus so much on the words that we forget to teach meaning behind those words, stories, authors, etc.

Routman suggests that teaching comprehension in isolation can actually make reading harder for children. "While it's fine to introduce and practice strategies one at a time, remember that when we read we use all these strategies at the same time and that our comprehension is largely unconscious."  Largely unconscious....that really made me think.  When I read do I think about what I am doing?  No, I don't. It's just like picking up a pencil or getting a drink of water.  I do it without thinking about it.  So, how do I teach comprehension properly?  Am I doing a good job with the methods that I am already using?  "Comprehension is a subtle, difficult-to-define process that changes according to the demands of the particular text."  So this means I have to prepare my students to be able to make meaning from all sorts of books.  

After reading this chapter I am convinced of one main necessity: Modeling. Modeling. Modeling.

In order to teach students how to apply comprehension processes, I have to make it look effortless. Natural.  Unconcious.  But, I have to be able to talk about it.  Discuss it.  Have a conversation with my students about what I am reading.  It's acting.  It's pretending to read it wrong or not understand something.  It's pretending to be a young reader so that they can identify with it.  It's making the thought bubble (like a speech bubble) come alive.  Personally, I feel as if I do a lot of this already but I did find it useful that Routman said to teach rereading as the most useful strategy. I think most children get in a hurry and want to just finish a book.  Rereading slows them down.  But, it makes them think.

In closing, I appreciated everything from this chapter.  I will refer to this chapter again.  I see how teaching comprehension is an integrated part of reading.  The strategies can't stand alone.  They must be able to apply strategies as they read.  "When we read, we simultaneously and seamlessly employ a whole range of strategies, and we are constantly making refinements and adjustments according to the demands of the text and what we bring to it.  Our comprehension process is invisible and difficult to document."  As a teacher, I must make the invisible, visible.