In Chapter 2 of the book, Cris talks about how teachers sometimes struggle with teaching kids to read. Teachers will say that students should know how to read already, and if they don't, they are too far gone. Its not my job to teach them how to read because that was supposed to be done in elementary school. I think that a lot of teachers really do think this way. But the problem lies in the fact that reading and literacy is a lifelong goal. It never ends! She gives us 2 ways to help student comprehension and one of them really stuck with me. That is, "become a passionate reader of what you teach." In order words, make darn sure you read books before asking students to read them, and don't ask students to read books that you didn't enjoy or get anything useful from. We need to do our best at that because if we are not passionate, then our students won't be either. Its sad that curriculum demands us to teach certain books, but we can be creative and adapt to make those books for engaging.
In Chapter 4, Cris gives us 6 indicators that help us monitor our understand. The one that always gets me is reciting the text instead of interacting with it. I can read and hear myself saying the words, but at the end of the page, I have no idea what I read. It helps for students to have those indicators so they can realize what the real problem is, instead of just saying that they are bad readers.
Chapter 5 mentions the 3 text connections that my cooperating teacher uses; Text to text, text to self, and text to world. After hearing how she uses these strategies in her class, I have found myself using them purposely in my reading as well. I think to an extent I already used them, but never had a name for them or knew what I was doing. Something that is mentioned later is that the connection had to help the reader, it cannot just be a connection to say that there is a connection. This is so important!! I see my students doing this all the time, but just because a character is pregnant in a book and other people get pregnant in the world doesn't mean that that connection is helpful at all. We need to teach students about this and make sure they are making the right connections. Chapter 5 also lists a few "fix up" strategies. One that I would add is to talk about the text with another person who has read or is also reading the same text. I think this is different than just retelling what you have read about because it involves 2 voices and 2 minds that probably are alike and different in many ways. Having another person to talk with is something I have always tried to find when I don't understand a text.
Chapter 8 talks about inferences and something that really stuck out to me was that when students make inferences, they should be probable. We all have active imaginations and could think of a variety of different endings our outcomes for a story, but we need to make sure they are probable. If they aren't, then we are just using our imagination, but we need to be focused on using our brains. Sure imagination is great, but use your imagination to go write your own story or your own ending. We have to use our brains and make inferences that make sense if they are going to be of any use to us in comprehension.
The resources at the back of the book are super helpful and useful! I really liked the one that asks you to read for 30 minutes and then stop and answer certain questions. They aren't text based questions or questions that have correct or certain answers, but it just makes you think about what you read and maybe gives you an idea if you need to go back and reread or use the "fix up" strategies. I also like that it breaks it down into small chunks. That makes reading seem more manageable.
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