Do you think your students know about all of the "fix it" strategies mentioned? Have you ever talked to other teachers about students who don't understand (or are challenged with) reading material? After reading this chapter, what would you say in the next conversation? OR
You bring up any key idea(s) you felt were helpful.......
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I do not think my students know almost any of the "fix it" strategies that are listed. I didn't realize that many of them were fix it strategies. I thought that they were just activities I did through eighth grade that teachers made me do. I do not think it was ever explained that doing these things would make me a stronger reader and clear up confusion. I imagine that the students today were taught the same way. Although they might have made predictions, or retold, or written about a story or text, they did not understand why they were doing.
ReplyDeleteI have talked to my coteacher about reading and students. Our main thing has been making sure the reading level was appropriate for every student in our classroom since it is a co-taught class. I think she is definitely aware of most of these, because I've also discussed some of what I'm reading with her and she seems to have a familiarity with most of the concepts. We're definitely planning more reading in the class...once we get done with the Constitution test.
I would also have more constructive ideas to bring in then "we should do more reading." I can definitely bring in the idea of a comprehension constructor and fix it strategies. I then can create handouts for the class involving the particular article/document we are reading.
I do not know if my students know these fix up strategies or not. I have some students that are very good readers and some that are not and so I would assume that the good readers know how to use fix up strategies, but i've never discussed it with them.
ReplyDeleteI have talked with students and the usual response of why they are struggling with a text is because they do not feel like doing it or it is just too much reading. When I talk to a teacher we often discuss how the students are just too lazy to try to give the reading a chance. In this aspect, it is my fault for not looking deeper into what the students are saying. If they are not understanding what the reading is saying, they will obviously not want to do it and even the shortest text will seem endless.
Having said this, i guarantee that there are students that do not read due to laziness. A lot of people struggle with reading, but that does not mean they cannot do it with time. My next conversation would be how to differentiate the readers who are honestly struggling and the readers who are just too lazy to put the necessary effort in.
Beth---You are so right that many teachers and students might not realize that those strategies help strengthen reading comprehension. Most weak readers do not automatically do those strategies or may rely on one too much that may not be appropriate for every situation.
ReplyDeleteAfter practicing multiple times with students, I used posters and bookmarks to visually remind students of the strategies.
Mary Beth- The idea of having posters around the wall is a good one. I had been thinking about how to keep the students remembering the ideas, and I have to admit posters had never crossed my mind. I think that is a weakness of secondary teachers is that we don't automatically think about the obvious way to teach students, because we view it to be too juvenile.
ReplyDeleteBryce----you pose some interesting ideas about laziness vs. struggling. I still think they can be directly related....if I struggle with comprehension because I don't know how to connect or form clear understanding then that is a lot of "work" to do. Sometimes text or assignments are boring so I struggle even more....so the attitude becomes "why bother?" It does take effort to try but is it fair that "good readers" can do things automatically with less effort?
ReplyDeleteTo the group---think of a time as a student you had to do an assignment/project that was super hard....what helped you get through it successfully? Have you ever admitted that you were not capable of doing something?
FROM DIMI----
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Beth on the fact that many of the “fix-up” strategies listed in this chapter seem to be too obvious to be honored as “strategies.” Nevertheless, they are, and some students consciously, or subconsciously, use these strategies to smooth over the reading process.
AAAH… rereading! What joy this word brings to the faces of my students. Almost all of my Freshman classes (3 out of 4) when faced with these strategies, bagged me to exclude rereading from the list. We hate it, they all confessed. That’s all that teachers ever ask them to do, when they say they did not get it, or that they were confused. Fair… but if not rereading, there must be something that students can review to clarify meaning. Marking was also a problem as discussed in my previous posts. So, I decided to incorporate the idea of the double-sided journal. If the students log a specific entity (conflicts, new characters, confusions, weird things, etc.) they automatically partition the text into those artificial divisions. Thus, a student will begin looking at the novel through its conflicts, instead of the unintelligible Roman numerals that mark the beginning of each chapter.
PS I was a big fan of the driving metaphor. Although I have not had a chance to incorporate it into my classes, I know that driving is one of these kids’ most important priorities. If you explain to them that reading with a strategy is just like driving a car with ALL of its wheels in place, you make them understand that reading with out a strategy is just as worthless (dangerous) as driving a car with a flat tire.
If you have students who have not taken the driving test yet, it is always a good topic for discussion....ask them how they are going to study for the test? Just read the manual 50 times? What strategy could help them without taking that amount of time?Hmm....
ReplyDeleteI would agree with what everybody seems to be saying, the majority of students do not know about these "fix-it" strategies. Some of these strategies are somewhat basic but having something to try rather than no hope of ever understanding the text, would go a long way in helping the majority of students. Students who excel with direction or a specific format could really benefit from simply being given a page with the Comprehension Constructor questions or a couple of the "fix-it" strategies at their disposal.
ReplyDeleteThe major difficulty I see with all this is actually getting students to attempt to use these strategies. As Bryce mentioned, some students simply don't read out of laziness. I suppose if you can get those students to see that the strategies are actually helping and clearing up confusion, they will be more likely to buy in.
As a math teacher I'm always making the connections between reading and solving a math problem while going through this book. The car analogy really hit home. In math our "destination" is a concrete solution most of the time instead of a more vague understanding which can be difficult to measure. Modifying the analogy for math, if you don't fill the car up with gasoline or follow the right directions, you aren't ever going to make it to your destination. And even going a step further, sometimes the route you originally planned has a roadblock and you must find some other way around.