Blog 6: Terri Thrailkill, Teaching Comprehension by Regie Routman

Blog 6/Terri Thrailkill: Teaching Comprehension by Regie Routman

There is no doubt that the ultimate goal of reading instruction is comprehension. But the goal for our students  should not just be superficial comprehension-a recall of the facts and a few details-but rather a deeper one, in which readers can analyze what they have read by summarizing, discussing the theme, author’s purpose, and why characters behave as they do. To reach this goal, comprehension strategies must begin being taught in preschool or kindergarten.

Routman warns against overly emphasizing word calling, automaticity and fluency in the early grades at the expense of understanding.  Students should always understand that reading is about meaning and not just figuring out words.

As teachers, we must think about the texts students are reading and the texts we want them to read.  Routman points out, “If we want readers to be critical thinkers, inquirers, and problem solvers, we need to introduce them to challenging, interesting texts. Then we need to show them not only how to process these texts but also how to reason strategically as they interpret, analyze, and appreciate what they read. However, teachers must also be very cautious to use independent texts that are easy enough and meaningful enough to support comprehension.  If students are reading for understanding they should know ninety-five percent or more of the words they encounter so that they may focus on meaning.

Routman offers a group of key strategies for achieving full understanding of a text.  These include: making connections, monitoring for meaning, determining  what’s most important, visualizing, asking questions, making inferences, and synthesizing.  Routman warns, however, that strategies are not synonymous with comprehension, but rather a “tool for facilitating and extending comprehension.”  She further cautions against teaching the strategies in isolation.  Although it may be useful to practice an isolated strategy while students are learning it, we need to make sure that most of our comprehension instruction uses strategies interactively, just as proficient readers do. Routman explains, “We teachers need to give explicit demonstrations not just on how to use a strategy in isolation but also on how to make the strategy a part of our unconscious reading process, so that students are  able to combine any number of strategies to problem solve before, during and after they read.”

We must also be careful not to hold students back with too much explicit instruction and too little guided reading.  Routman recommends a twenty per cent to eighty per cent rule. Students must also be given enough time for independent reading to enable them to use and practice these strategies.  Teachers must also make very clear why we are teaching a particular strategy and demonstrate how to use it by thinking aloud in front of the class.  She further encourages teachers to “think deeply about our own reading process, and trust what we do as a reader to guide our teaching.”  Modeling our own strategies such as rereading, questioning, predicting, summarizing, and classifying will help students increase their own reading comprehension as well as demonstrating that comprehending changes according to the demands of the text.

Routman also brought into focus some of the more important comprehension strategies with suggested ideas on trying and applying them.  Rereading is the single most useful strategy to readers of all ages.  Writing is also a helpful strategy to teach, especially with nonfiction texts.  Underlining, writing comments in the margin, noting key pages to return to, are important aids in comprehension.  I have been negligent in demonstrating these to my students.  Previewing, or surveying, a text “sets the scene for reading by giving a framework for what is about to unfold.”  Taking a picture walk is common in younger classrooms. Students need to be aware of text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections in order to enhance their understanding, but Routman cautions that “most of the connections should be routinely demonstrated and practiced as part of the total reading experience.”  Making connections was a new emphasis in comprehension when I reentered teaching.

One strategy that is very familiar to me is self-monitoring.  I certainly agree when Routman writes, “students cannot read for meaning until they can monitor the things they do to make sense of text and maintain comprehension-before, during, and after reading, yes, but especially as they read.”  Remembering my Reading Recovery training, self-monitoring should be emphasized from the very early stages of learning to read.  Modeling for students how to read difficult parts out loud or talk to themselves in their heads may aid with comprehension. Talking with peers about what they read also increases understanding. “Collaborative talk is a powerful way to make meaning.”  We must also ask and demonstrate how to ask questions that encourage in-depth reading.

In conclusion, I found this chapter to be very practical and informative.  It gave me some new information, but mainly helped me recall and cement some fundamental comprehension strategies that have been taught for years.  It also reminded me that we must not just teach reading strategies but rather strategic reading.