February 6, 2010

Routman and Cooper were oh-so-similar with their strategies to help with comprehension, I wanted to see who published their list first…it was Regie Routman (2003). Cooper et al. published their article about helping students construct meaning in 2009. Their list was nearly identical to Routman’s. It’s a great menu of options for helping our students.

For myself, being the dreamer that I am, I need to highlight or take notes while I read school books or articles. Otherwise, I nearly always need to go back and re-read to grasp key material. And, like kids, it helps if I have some questions to reflect on while I read.

In my 6th grade class, the teacher creates a weekly organizer for students. It provides kids with daily assigned reading and questions about that reading; most questions pertain in some way to their understanding of the text and relate to several of the items in our strategies lists (e.g. prediction, making connections, identifying main ideas). This has worked very well since the start of the year. It makes reading more manageable for the students by breaking it down into sections. The teacher also provides extensions for kids who work ahead.

I like Cooper’s addition of “evaluating” as a strategy. I think this is another important component of a student’s understanding of their reading by requiring them to make judgments about what they read. By letting kids express opinions about their learning, we are saying that we value their opinions and the life histories that they bring to the group and as individuals. Evaluating is also important as it helps develop students’ critical thinking.

March 12: In responding to Cara Byrne's blog I was drawn to re-reading my own blog here about comprehension. Cara wrote about the value in informal reading conferences. The one-on-one approach is idea for working with students to determine personal reading goals. However, while you (the teacher) are trying to meet with individuals, we also need to have students work on different strategies in reading which will highlight where they might need further assistance. For me--it is the reading packets. They become a great source of conversation when meeting with individuals. We can sit together (teacher and student), read through their responses, and talk about where their strengths and their struggles lie!