Jaime Steading's Blog Post 5--Routman Chapt. 8: Teach Comprehension

I chose to read this chapter because comprehension is something my students struggle with.  This is a common trait for children with autism.  Many of my students are great "word callers", but they are unable to retell the story or answer questions about what they have read.  Routman says, "When we spend most of our energy focusing on words, students get the message that reading is about words rather than meaning".  One strength most children with autism have is rote memorization.  This can make them fantastic "word callers" and, I think, is the reason instruction for them is often geared towards word recall.  The difficulty with teaching comprehension to children with autism lies in the fact that these students tend to have difficulty with abstract thinking.  They tend to be very black and white, literal thinkers.  This makes it very difficult to teach comprehension skills, especially higher order thinking skills.

One idea Routman shared that I really liked is the "20-percent-to-80-percent rule".  This rule means that 20% of our time should be devoted to explicit instruction, while 80% should be devoted to guided practice.  The actual act of reading continues to be the most effective way to ensure student success.  The most effective way to teach comprehension, according to Routman, is to demonstrate how to use comprehension strategies by thinking aloud in front of your students.  I have to admit, this is difficult for me.  I often feel very awkward doing this.  I hope, with time and practice, it will become more second nature to me.

Another important idea Routman shares that I would like to incorporate into my classroom is interaction among peers.  Routman says, "Talking with others about what we read increases our understanding".  I am brainstorming ways to make this more effective in my classroom, since some of my students are very limited in their language.  They have difficulty carrying on conversations, let alone discussing a book they have read.  However, I hope with modeling and practice, this can be an effective way to increase not only comprehension, but communication as well.

Finally, Routman discusses using texts that are easy enough to support comprehension.  "Students can't read for meaning if they are struggling over words or concepts."  I have tried to pay closer attention to this.  For example, I have a couple of students who can "read" at a very high level without error, but are unable to tell anything about the story they read or answer questions about it.  In order to address this, I have dropped them to a much lower level.  I have seen an increase in these students' ability to answer questions and retell information from the story at this lower level.  It has increased their confidence, as well as their comprehension.  Hopefully, this strategy will continue to help close the gap between their comprehension and their word calling.

I will continue to research ways to help improve comprehension for children with autism.  I will also continue to look for ways to make comprehension more visual, as this is the way children with autism tend to learn best.  I plan on using some of the strategies that Routman shared in this chapter in my guided reading groups and read alouds to help increase comprehension skills for my students.