Barone Post #4

Routman Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension

                I really took a lot away from this chapter and enjoyed reading it. It is very important for teachers to show students that reading is more than just words! I find, especially with our low level readers, who get direct instruction that this isn’t always done. Students need to understand the meaning of the words that they are reading so that they can apply the words outside of text and in their own vocabulary. Teachers need to use interesting and appropriately challenging texts to engage readers and have them thinking critically. Teachers need to demonstrate comprehension strategies for students to use while they are reading. The best way to do this is with a read aloud and actually show students how to reread, highlight, write comments, survey, predict, connect, and monitor the story. This will help students do this when they are reading, sometimes without even thinking about it. I found it very interesting that most important strategies for comprehension all require the students to really take extra time like to reread, review, and write. As teachers we know that this helps tremendously but when it comes to the unreasonably time standardized tests, which involve a heavy amount of reading, how is this possible? The best way for teachers to try and achieve this is constant practice and modeling, so that students may naturally use the strategies while they read. I liked the possible charts that Routman suggested for teachers to use in the classroom. Students cannot read for meaning until they can monitor the strategies that they use to make sense of the text before, during, and after. Students can ask themselves questions as they read such as: Does this make sense? You can start a class chart that says: I know I understand what I am reading when I can... Have students talk to themselves about the text. Teachers can post these suggestions in the room and model them while reading aloud: I wonder why he is doing that? Okay, I get it now. I’ve seen this word before. This doesn’t make sense. I better reread this part. Teachers need to create an environment where reading for meaning is achievable. Students should be talking about what they are reading, reading texts easy enough but meaningful enough to support comprehension, practicing fluency with familiar texts, and having exposure to a variety of texts. Then once the students have seen and learned how to make reading meaningful, students should successfully involve all the strategies while they are reading. This is so beneficial for the students because it helps them actually understand what they are reading which helps them connect and relate to books. This is what can ignite the passion and need for reading in their lives outside of what’s required in the classroom!