In this chapter Routman discusses the different reading strategies and cautions how we should use them to teach comprehension. Further, it warns us that teachers have wrongly made strategies synonymous with comprehension when students do not get the big picture of how it all fits into reading to understand.
The piece explains that many students are held back by too much explicit instruction and too little guided practice. I believe we are all guilty of this and can scaffold our instruction to be more student-led as it relates to reading. The chapter states that we need to be careful about the amount of time we devote to strategy instruction and that actual reading still needs to be the dominate goal.
I sometimes feel as if I am fighting a losing battle when it comes to teaching my students to read to understand or read for meaning rather than "read for fun." Our parents also had a hard time realizing that students needed to be deeper thinkers in third grade. Furthermore, making connections to what we are reading is the best way to comprehend what we are reading. It has been painful, yet I am looking with great interest over the next week to see student progress on STAR testing. I am hopeful that something I have taught or the way I have taught it has made a difference.
This is exactly what we have been talking about this semester through R2S. Strategy instruction has to include guided practice. Strategy mini lesson are just that - mini - a short amount of time spent on whole group instruction. Then, we can practice with them during Guided Reading Groups and conferencing. Finally, during IR, they are on their own - making connections, predicting, asking questions, etc. Hopefully these strategies will carry over to content reading throughout their education. Comprehension strategies are lifelong skills and will benefit throughout their education and beyond.
ReplyDeleteTrust that you are making a difference! You make a good point about our important role as advocates not only for students, but also for parents. We need to communicate our reasoning to them too--sometimes they feel uncomfortable when instructional styles differ from what they experienced themselves!
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