“The rich get richer” is what came to mind as I was reading these articles. It seems like so many things rely on background knowledge and prior experiences of readers. So should we be focusing more on exploring the world and experiencing culture and life before delving into reading comprehension? It seems like students lacking in real life experiences are the same ones who struggle to grasp concepts in reading and to really think. And what types of background experiences are the most supportive in developing background knowledge needed for reading comprehension?
From my experiences teaching, I’ve noticed that a lot of students who are well developed conversationally are better able to understand and gain meaning when reading. However, when interventions or extra support is needed for students, the focus is often structured comprehension strategies. Should we be working on meaningful conversations and building life experiences instead? Does the ability to connect to another individual through conversation carry over and enhance the ability to connect to a story? To a character? To a plot? To a theme? This seems to make sense to me. And then I read about all of the different strategies and “prescriptions” to help struggling readers and it seems overwhelming to think about everything that needs to be taught. No wonder kids get so frustrated! So, I’m left thinking, “What is the key to teaching comprehension?” All of the approaches that I read about were very structured and specific and had included different strategies. Is it the strategies chosen that is important? Is it using certain strategies consecutively that makes a difference? What makes these programs successful? One thing that stuck out to me was that using good literature was mentioned repeatedly. I think this is one major key in reading comprehension. For the strategies to be useful and meaningful, we have to begin with good text. This is a key to getting kids interested and giving them something to relate to so they are able to understand and gain meaning. This is important for ANY reader, struggling, ELL, or proficient. All readers need good text. So what if we worried less about what “prescription” to use and just relied on good text and good teaching? By good teaching I mean spending time interacting with and observing students, building on their strengths, supporting their needs, providing them the opportunity to be a thinker, and to share their thoughts with others. And with some thoughtful planning, we can do all of these things with students while teaching them reading comprehension strategies. It all begins with a good book.
From my experiences teaching, I’ve noticed that a lot of students who are well developed conversationally are better able to understand and gain meaning when reading. However, when interventions or extra support is needed for students, the focus is often structured comprehension strategies. Should we be working on meaningful conversations and building life experiences instead? Does the ability to connect to another individual through conversation carry over and enhance the ability to connect to a story? To a character? To a plot? To a theme? This seems to make sense to me. And then I read about all of the different strategies and “prescriptions” to help struggling readers and it seems overwhelming to think about everything that needs to be taught. No wonder kids get so frustrated! So, I’m left thinking, “What is the key to teaching comprehension?” All of the approaches that I read about were very structured and specific and had included different strategies. Is it the strategies chosen that is important? Is it using certain strategies consecutively that makes a difference? What makes these programs successful? One thing that stuck out to me was that using good literature was mentioned repeatedly. I think this is one major key in reading comprehension. For the strategies to be useful and meaningful, we have to begin with good text. This is a key to getting kids interested and giving them something to relate to so they are able to understand and gain meaning. This is important for ANY reader, struggling, ELL, or proficient. All readers need good text. So what if we worried less about what “prescription” to use and just relied on good text and good teaching? By good teaching I mean spending time interacting with and observing students, building on their strengths, supporting their needs, providing them the opportunity to be a thinker, and to share their thoughts with others. And with some thoughtful planning, we can do all of these things with students while teaching them reading comprehension strategies. It all begins with a good book.