My favorite part of this book were all the strategies that we were given to "fix up" the confusion that students have when reading. The chapter starts out with a kid saying that when he doesn't understand, he just stops reading. This has been something I have done in the past as a student and so I think that it is important that teachers try and use a few of these strategies to help fix the confusion that kids are having.
The first strategy asks for students to connect what they are reading to their own life, other texts, or their knowledge of the world. The problem with this is sometimes students are going to need help making those connections. This is where the facilitation of learning from the teacher comes into play. Once the teacher helps the student make those connections, often times then students understand the reading 100xs better and can continue to learn on their own after that connection has been made.
The second strategy is to make a prediction. If students can take what they know and make educated guesses about what is coming next, then it will help them to comprehend what they are reading and make all those connections so much easier.
Thinking and writing about what you have already read are two important steps as well. Allowing students to stop and process what is going on for many kids is a vital step in their learning process. For kids who tend to be extremely analytical, they cannot learn effectively without this step. And then for those kids who are visual learners and can process things better by getting it down on paper in a notebook.
Another good idea I thought was the suggestion to retell what you've read. In order for students to retell what is going on, they have to understand what they are reading. By having students retell, we as teachers can see if they are not understanding what is going on by if they are able to retell or not. If they are having trouble retelling it, then maybe we jump over to the reread stage which gives students another opportunity to understand what they have been reading.
My favorite analogy was the comparison to reading and driving a car.
The plan to fix the problem doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to meet the demands of the situation.
The first strategy asks for students to connect what they are reading to their own life, other texts, or their knowledge of the world. The problem with this is sometimes students are going to need help making those connections. This is where the facilitation of learning from the teacher comes into play. Once the teacher helps the student make those connections, often times then students understand the reading 100xs better and can continue to learn on their own after that connection has been made.
The second strategy is to make a prediction. If students can take what they know and make educated guesses about what is coming next, then it will help them to comprehend what they are reading and make all those connections so much easier.
Thinking and writing about what you have already read are two important steps as well. Allowing students to stop and process what is going on for many kids is a vital step in their learning process. For kids who tend to be extremely analytical, they cannot learn effectively without this step. And then for those kids who are visual learners and can process things better by getting it down on paper in a notebook.
Another good idea I thought was the suggestion to retell what you've read. In order for students to retell what is going on, they have to understand what they are reading. By having students retell, we as teachers can see if they are not understanding what is going on by if they are able to retell or not. If they are having trouble retelling it, then maybe we jump over to the reread stage which gives students another opportunity to understand what they have been reading.
My favorite analogy was the comparison to reading and driving a car.
The plan to fix the problem doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to meet the demands of the situation.
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