Week Eleven Assignment One

What do good readers do?

            The video describes various strategies that students can use to ensure that they comprehend the text. One strategy that stuck with me was the think aloud strategy. This is when a student is reading and actively thinking aloud about what they are reading. It may suggest that after a student reads a paragraph or a main idea that he or she is able to talk out loud about what it is that he or she just read. The video also discussed that good readers are able to react to the text. If a child is reading a book about a young student who feels left out because she is new at school, a good reader would being to express the emotions that he or she is feeling while they are reading about this young student. It is possible that the reader could know a young student just like the one in the book and that he or she can relate or understand how the young student in the book is feeling based on prior life experience.

            Another strategy that I really enjoyed is that good readers ask themselves questions. If a child is able to ask a question out loud than he or she is actively thinking about the situation of which that question is applied. This will also help students make meaning of the material as they read along. It is also important for students to preview the text and see what type of style it is written in. A good reader may want to skim through the book prior to reading it to determine how the book is structured and why the author might have used the illustrations that they used.

What can teachers do to develop comprehension?

            The video provided a long list of ideas that teachers can do to help improve comprehension in their students. These suggestions are teaching strategies, building vocabulary, building background knowledge, providing opportunities to comprehend, teaching about the text, enabling discussions, encouraging writing, and ensuring authenticity. Each of these suggestions is important towards improving students reading comprehension. It is great when a teacher can sit with a small group of students or individual students to monitor progress and go over different comprehension strategies. It is also important for teachers to be able to model the different comprehension strategies. For example when students are participating in a shared reading activity in which the teacher is reading to the students, it would be beneficial for the teacher to demonstrating thinking aloud while he or she is reading and asking questions as the text continues.

            Another important suggestion that the video provided was asking open-ended questions. A child can gain a wider knowledge span if the teacher is able to ask question that do not have a simple yes or no answer. The open-ended questions encourage the students to think about the text and to make connections with their own life that they would have had trouble doing on their own. Teachers should also make as many opportunities for students to read as possible. Anytime that a child can get his or her hands on a piece of text along with a worksheet or a handout to help boost comprehension is helpful. One of the research projects that Professor Duke was working on showed that teachers that had their students write a lot proved to be more effective in comprehension. Students that are writing in other content areas are increasing their knowledge on different topics and are also learning to read to understand.

What can teachers do to help struggling readers?                                         

            In the video Professor Duke suggests that students who are identified as struggling readers need a more intense coaching experience. The teacher should meet with the struggling readers at least twice a week for a one-on-one or a small group experience to go over the comprehension strategies and to ensure that they are not falling behind but instead that they are making progress. These small group learning experiences also help the teacher monitor the students both with reading and with text structure.

Teachers should be teaching their students to make adjustments while they are reading. A child should be aware if they do not understand what they are reading. If they do not understand the text than the teacher should be teaching them different strategies towards adjusting their reading to ensure comprehension is taking place. One of the adjustment strategies suggests that students reread what it is they did not comprehend. Another type of strategy would be the use of graphic organizers or alternative material provided by the teacher to help boost comprehension.