Vicky McLain’s Post 6: Routman Chap. 8: Teach Comprehension

“It’s no surprise that the most recent NAEP results show a growing gap between our nation’s highest- and lowest-achieving readers.”(Routman, pg. 118)

This couldn’t be truer! You should see my class’ most recent STAR reading graph!  The gap between my lowest readers and my higher achievers is almost 40%!

When we read we read for meaning.  Why else do we read?  It makes perfect sense.  But sometimes we teach like children are reading for some other purpose.  That doesn’t make sense.  I appreciate Routman’s illumination of this truth.  Our focus on fluency often gets in the way of focus on meaning.  Maybe it is because we “teacherize” things too much.  Something as simple as comprehension becomes brain surgery to us and just confuses and complicates our pedagogy.  Routman said, “So much emphasis on comprehension strategies can actually make reading harder.”  Sadly, I can testify that this is so.  I’ve been guilty of doing what Routman describes on pg. 119 regarding teaching a comprehension strategy for too long and disregarding the valued time for independent, meaningful reading. Truthfully, in my heart (where good teaching comes from) I knew it wasn’t the best for my students but trends often dominate our teaching. This doesn’t mean that we should neglect teaching comprehension strategies but that we carefully manage the time spent explicitly teaching these strategies. Teaching comprehension strategies should be simplistic and fully integrated after one or two mini-lessons and not stretched out over a week. 

What then shall we teach? Routman's lists in this chapter are a good reference.  My favorite are simple.  We should make our own reading/thinking auditory or "visual" for students more often. They see how we apply our own natural reading strategies.  Like most people, I reread when I’m tackling a challenging text.  I prefer writing/highlighting in challenging texts as well whether. (You should see my Bible!)  I subconsciously make connections to self, to other texts, and to the world as well.  That comes with more experience with reading. I don't sticky note my texts unless it is something I need to come back to for a particular reason.  Why did I ask my students to do that?  

However, to demonstrate true understanding nothing is a better indicator that the ability to talk about a text with friends.  If I can have a conversation about what I’m reading then I really know that I’ve understood it.  This is the best indicator of comprehension in my classroom across the curriculum as well. This is an enjoyable interaction for me but it isn’t that way for everyone.  Personality types differ in childhood as well as with adults.  Some just don’t want to talk much about their reading.  Modeling this for students is a must so as to encourage this practice for all.

Asking questions (pg. 128) is a higher level thinking skill that is not just a trend.  This is definitely a strategy we need to hone in on!  Great minds of old had some things in common.  One of those is the ability to ask meaningful questions.  Though I don't agree with much of the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Voltaire etc... they did highlight that one's knowledge is limited to their ability to ask meaningful questions.  It is one thing to be able to discuss what we read but it is another realm to be able to ask.