Monitoring comprehension is one hard task for my students. They have difficulty determining whether they truly understand the text or not. Chapter six in Strategies that Work et al. explicitly explains how to teach comprehension strategies that deals with monitoring comprehension. One of the strategies I really liked and I started using with my students in the past week is “Knowing When You Know and Knowing When You Don’t Know. While reading aloud, I model when I am genuinely confused and then I show how I find the answer in the text. For instance, my students and I were reading an article from a magazine about young kids in Dominican Republic whose dreams are to play in Baseball Major Leagues and the challenges they face to even get chosen. There was one part in the article that explained the process of getting picked in the baseball camps and how these baseball camps are the key in changing kids’ lives and the life of their families. At first I didn’t understand how the families would also be benefited from these camps so I articulated my confusion to my students. I said I was going to keep reading to find the answer in the text. Luckily in the next paragraph it clearly explained that these families were given medical services, food, and housing. I then showed my students how this information enabled me to understand the text.

         Although it is a new approach I am taking while thinking aloud, I already can tell my students are relating to it as they become confuse themselves while reading. Instead of avoiding that uncertainty about the text, I am modeling to my students what to do when I am unsure about the text. Harvey and Goudvis suggested that “this coding technique supports students’ effort to monitor their comprehension and stay on track with their thinking” (2007 p. 81).

Another comprehension strategy that allows students to monitor their thinking while reading is “Read, Write, and Talk,” Students jot down comments, questions, and connections about what they read. Some of my students successfully use this technique in their independent practice as well as my co-teacher, especially when reading social studies magazines. Though I had never used this strategy I can see how it can help my students track their thinking as they are responding directly to that text while reading. This note jotting allows students to connect to text and self, to predict, to question the text or the definition of unfamiliar words, to summarize and synthesize important information.  Harvey and Goudvis explained that “when kids notice their thinking while they read and engaged in purposeful talk [and note jotting], they comprehend more completely and think beyond the text” (2007, p. 83).

                           Classroom teachers and Exceptional Education Inclusion teachers are too busy teaching or in some cases, drilling, math and reading lesson in order to meet the academic standards assessed in FCAT. Consequently, we are only able to devote 30 minutes to Social Studies or Science per day. This is not enough! One approach we have taken in my inclusive classroom is that one of utilizing reading materials from social studies to practice comprehension strategies. One strategy that we have been using most of the times in social studies is defining unfamiliar words through context clues. My co teacher and I model how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of these words. For instance, when reading about Ancient Civilizations we came across the word “migrate.” In the text, this word was followed by a coma, the conjunction “or” and the word “travel:” migrate, or travel. We explained to the students that one way to find out what this word meant was to keep on reading paying attention to that coma and the conjunction because the text was giving us the definition. Even though travel is not the most adequate definition for migrate, it still helped students understand that ancient civilizations used to travel and move to different places in search of fertile lands and homes.

Harvey and Goudvis suggested that despite our lack of time to teach social studies or science, we should create learning environments that focus on comprehension as opposed to memorization. We should foster an environment that connects students with real world and real life issues. Finally, this environment should provide students with time to think (2007 p. 207). When teaching social studies my co-teacher and I try to connect the content with issues that are meaningful to students. Recently, we were learning about economics and we decided to extend the unit to talk about banks, interest rate, credit cards, and loans. Surprisingly, students were really engaged and they asked valuable questions such as: how do I know a bank won’t steal my money” “If I am out of Naples can I still access my money in my bank account?” This turned out into a huge opportunity for debating and thinking, I had never seen my students so eager to learn about a subject. All I had to do was to relate the content to their experiences as most of their parents had bank accounts.

          As an Inclusion teacher I wish I could have a classroom of my own to be able to implement all the techniques mentioned in our textbook such as: Book Club Discussions, Creation of Concept Maps, Creation of Maps of Stories, Construction of Time Lines, among others.  The one reading technique I utilize the most in the class is Interactive Read-Alouds with picture books and regular books. While not having a classroom of my own is frustrating, co teaching is an excellent method to share my thinking with my students and my co teacher.  Mr. Schultz, my co teacher, and are able to engage in effective dialogues that make our thinking visible to our students. It has only been six weeks of school and I have noticed how my students use great vocabulary words when expressing their thinking or confusion about a text. This is all part of content literacy as students are learning information, ideas, and new ways of thinking. When they ask important questions and share their thinking with classmates, they also explore their world (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p 218).

 

Harvey, S. & Goudvis A. (2007) Strategies that work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement (2^nd Ed). Porstmouth: NH. Stenhouse Publishers.

Reading is thinking: Discussion Sample 1

I never viewed Reading as another way of thinking. Reading to me was no more than understanding what the text or story was about and recalling the names of the main characters. After becoming a teacher I then realized Reading goes beyond recalling and understanding. Reading is making sense of what we read by employing numerous strategies when needed. Reading is adjusting our thinking based on what we read and being able to justify why we change of views and opinions. It turns out my definition of Reading was aligned with the one in Strategies that work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement written by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis: “Reading is thinking.”  The authors explain that true comprehension is more than understanding; the reader must interact with the text in such way that his thinking is mixed with the text and expanded beyond a literal understanding pg. 14. 

I often ask my students to recall memorable events from the story or identify the main idea in the nonfiction text. The truth is this isn’t enough for my students to become avid readers. They need to think not only about what they are reading but about what they are learning.  In order to accomplish this, I must teach them how to think while reading so they can access, remember, and learn information. Since I share a classroom with another teacher and I do not possess my own classroom, I would accomplish this during guided reading or during reading intervention with my students who struggle the most. I often encourage my students to think about what they read but I have never checked how their thinking changes as they read, or what goes through their brains while reading. Fortunately, my co-teacher and I do foster active literacy by having our kids question each other, make inferences, discuss key information within the text or story, and prove their thinking in reading by gathering evidence directly from the text.

Something in this book that prompted me to assess my practice while teaching comprehension was “rather than a single strategy focus, transactional strategy instruction teachers students a repertoire of strategies that [readers] apply flexibly according to the demands of the reading tasks and texts they encounter” (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007 pg. 23). Even though I give my students a repertoire of strategies to use while reading, I forget to emphasized the importance of connecting those strategies in order to make sense of the text.   I often teach comprehension in isolation as the teacher edition text book indicates. No wonder it always feels as if something else in my instruction is missing! Though I will continue to introduce, teach, and model comprehension strategies one at the time throughout the school year, I will make certain I connect them to enable my students become great readers and thinkers.

In assisting my students to be great readers, I perform lots of “think alouds.” While the new Common Core requires our readers to acquire rigorous skills in reading, I do appreciate the fact that it encourage teachers to model and share their thinking with students through think alouds. When doing this activity in the classroom, I encourage my students to watch everything I do and notice what I do while I am adjusting my thinking. However, Harvey and Goudvis (2007) also suggested “asking [students] to share what they noticed after that demonstration” (pg. 46). Other strategies to increase students’ comprehension proficiency are Interactive Reading Alouds where students are just listening for comprehension. This is a great method I may utilize in my inclusive classroom as most of my kids struggle to decode words and therefore, cannot comprehend the text. Interactive Reading Alouds allows for comprehension without decoding or fluency interfering. It promotes students’ interaction with each other and lots of questioning. Finally, Guided Discussions are powerful tools in developing students’ thinking skills. The most important aspect about Guided Discussions is the fact that teachers are just the facilitator. It’s a student-centered activity in which students are in charge of articulating their opinions and ideas based on evidence directly from the text. I recently used this strategy in the classroom with my fifth graders when reading about a 12-year-old who decided to sail around the world by herself in a sail ship. The text explained how critics though her act showed bravery as she inspired everyone to achieve their dreams while others thought her actions were reckless because she could have drowned.  I then decided to write Reckless and Bravery in opposite sides of the classroom. I encouraged my students to think about the character’s actions and determine whether they thought it was reckless or brave.  My students had a lot of fun as they totally took control in expressing their ideas. Not only did they state their opinions, but they successfully quoted information from the text to justify their thoughts. They became so engrossed in this debate they forgot I was there. I was amazed to listen to their ideas which were not even stated in the text.

Another factor that made this debate effective was the use of magazines. The text was based on a real story that included photographs of the real girl and her sail ship, vital vocabulary words such as harbor, bravery, reckless and others. Besides it was the perfect length to do a quick read aloud. According to Harvey and Goudvis (2007), short texts provide students with a focus on critical issues related to our readers. Short texts are easily reread to clarify confusions and better construct meaning. Additionally, it allows young readers to engage in interpretive thinking regardless of their decoding abilities. Lastly, short texts provide plenty of opportunities for modeling and thinking aloud.

The more I learn about teaching comprehension the more I struggle to find effective ways to assess my students’ comprehension. After utilizing multiple choice assessments that are already built in the reading curriculum, I refuse to continue making my students take these pointless tests. End-of-the-chapter assessments do not accurately reflect my students’ comprehension or the areas in which they need support. I always ended up brainstorming questions on my own and having my students write at least three sentences to respond. Fortunately, my philosophy about assessing comprehension corresponds with the experts’: “The only way we can confidently assess our students’ comprehension is when they share their thinking with us. Readers reveal their comprehension by responding to text, not by answering a litany of literal questions at the end of the chapter” (Harvey et. al.,  2007, pg. 39).   Unfortunately, all of our assessments are standardized tests the measure students’ testing skills as opposed to the students’ ability to read, think, and comprehend. As an Exceptional Education Inclusion Teacher in fifth grade, I am lucky to say my co-teacher and I always find a way to assess our students’ comprehension during centers by allowing them to write about what they read. Whether they are making predictions, visualizing, or clarifying questions, I know our students are developing and practicing great readers’ behaviors.

Harvey, S. & Goudvis A. (2007) Strategies that work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement (2^nd Ed). Porstmouth: NH. Stenhouse Publishers.