This weeks readings taught me a lot about what comprehension strategies I use while reading and what strategies work best for me. First, I reflected on what books and text I comprehend the best. The text I comprehend the best is text that matches my reading level, text that interests me, and text that keeps me interested. I have often found myself putting down a book that I was very interested in reading simply because I did not continue to be intrigued by it. I lose interest and stop thinking about the characters, the storyline, and other aspects of the text. Not only does interest aid in my comprehension, but I also comprehend text best when it is at my reading level and matches my personal vocabulary. If I am reading a text that I do not understand and is difficult for me to read, I get very frusterated and usually put it down quickly. I also find that if I follow part or all of the reading process as distinguished in the Tempkins text that I will stay interested in a text and stay interested. By staying interested in a text i am more likely to question myself and to comprehend the meating of the text more.
After thinking about how I comprehend text I have thought a lot about how my students in my mentor teachers classroom comprehend text. I have seen my students visualize and make connections with text. This is something that they often do and connect it with writing activities. Throughout the Profiles in Comprehension text I noticed many types of answers that my students were providing. Since my students had responded with a range of answers, I am able ot determine their individual reading strategies and how they are comprehending text. I learned that many of my students are 'fuzzy thinkers." In order to build on these strategies I would provide lessons as suggested in the article.These lessons can include story maps, think-alouds, and venn diagrams. These will help to build on my students current inderstanding of the text and allow them to further comprehend in a deeper manner.
I think that a lot of teachers look passed the fact that their students are not interested in the books that they assign or the book is not at an appropriate reading level for the child and right away think that these children have reading problems. I think knowing a child's reading level and interests is important in fostering children's reading comprehension.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if the ideas from the article would help the student's in your placement to better comprehend what is being read. I also think that using several different ideas to help children to comprehend would get more of the class thinking more clear. For example, visual learners may benefit from visualizing the text while you read while more concrete learners may need a venn diagram to keep their thoughts straight.