Well I believe many people are reading this same book I'm,
"Do I really have to teach reading". It's actually very funny and a
fun read. During our meeting today a few people were talking about some parts
of the book I'm just getting to. I better stay up on my reading because it
feels like they ruined the end for me J
jk.
The author writes “Meaning doesn’t arrive because we have
highlighted text or used sticky notes or written the right words on a comprehension
worksheet. Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking
while we read”
This author is talking about teaching the kids to be strategic
readers and become more thoughtful in their reading. Sticky notes and
highlighters don’t make kids better readers. It sure never made me one. I think
I highlight stuff just because it makes me look like I did a lot of work. To be
honest I have highlighted a book until it was fully yellow almost, but for
what? We need to narrow our thinking down and the author is trying to teach us that
we need to become realistic teachers and it’s not that simple.
NO EASY ANSWER.
Can comprehension strategies important to learn any
discipline? The author claims that it was her fault that the students were not
showed how a meaningful connection could deepen their understanding of the
text. She used a double entry diary. On the left side was “quote or description
from a scene in the reading” and on the right side “record of the strategy
being taught”. She also had a student when asked something would always say “so
what” the teacher did this to her one day and the student never said it again.
They continued to make connection between their life and the story, one student
had a little brother much like the one in the story and so on.
One reading about a boy who is drinking out of a tin cup but
the little child in the class asked why would you do that? If you drink out of
a tin cup it will taste gross. Than the teacher asked if she could think of a
real life reason as to why you would drink out of a tin cup and she got it “oh
the kid is poor”. She did what all good readers do she made a connection to her
personal life to help understand the tex.
Lol, I'm glad you're enjoying your book Steve. I'm struggling with mine, but I did find a part in there that relates specifically to the math classroom. I thought of you since we're both moving in the same direction in school. It's been frustrating trying to relate this class to a math classroom but I was glad to find that part of a chapter in my book that helped. Nice blog ;)
ReplyDeleteAccording to Amy, students need to reread, visualize, activate prior knowledge, attend textual patterns, and use context clues in a reading comprehension test. I once had an ELL student who told me that he knows the content knowledge well, yet during the standardize test he goes blank and he forgets everything he learned. I believe now after reading this book, this student needed help and a more thorough diagnosis to identify which one of the aforementioned skills affected him.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Amy, students need to reread, visualize, activate prior knowledge, attend textual patterns, and use context clues in a reading comprehension test. I once had an ELL student who told me that he knows the content knowledge well, yet during the standardize test he goes blank and he forgets everything he learned. I believe now after reading this book, this student needed help and a more thorough diagnosis to identify which one of the aforementioned skills affected him.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm reading the same book. I completely agree with you about highlighting. When I first started college everything seemed important so I mostly highlighted everything, that goes for notes too, but after time I just started highlighting the things I found intresting that maybe I could go back to in case I had to write a paper on the subject.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny though when I buy used books, sometimes they will just have highlighting in the first few chapters, and then they gave up, or the whole book will have highlighting though out.