After reading about and discussing comprehension this week, I have learned a bit about myself in terms of comprehension. As I look at how I comprehend text I can think about ways that others comprehend text as well. In doing this, I can relate to students so I can help teach the best ways to be a good “comprehender”. In the Tompkins’ book, she talks about the eight strategies for comprehension. These strategies are predicting, connecting, visualizing, questioning, identifying big ideas, summarizing, monitoring, and evaluating. Now that I am a fluent reader I tend to do a lot of the strategies that help good comprehension unconsciously. Many times while I am reading I find myself predicting what is going to happen next, visualizing what is actually going on in the story, or connecting the text to my own life. I feel that the idea of me doing these things unconsciously is what teachers strive to get their students to do. Also in the Tompkins’ chapter, she talks about the differences between struggling readers and prolific readers. Struggling readers have a hard time drawing inferences between the text and the strategies of comprehension, while prolific readers can and do this in their reading. For students to become prolific readers, I feel that the strategies for comprehension must be taught. This is because we must be able to comprehend what we are reading to be able to truly be reading. There is no use in reading if we cannot comprehend, therefore, these strategies can be done by asking questions both orally and in writing by the teacher.
In terms of seeing comprehension in the field, I have seen a few of the strategies in action. On Tuesday I worked one-on-one with a girl in my class. I had her read a story to me and fill in a worksheet about it. While she read, I noticed her monitoring herself. From time to time she would read a line then accidentally go down to a line not directly below the one she was reading. She would notice that what she read did not make sense and try rereading the sentence over again. I also noticed her visualizing skills. There were pictures in the story, but many times she would look at the picture and tell me what they left out or what she would have put into the picture. After we read the story I could tell that she understood what she read by being able to write the big ideas on the worksheet.
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I think it is interesting that we both mentioned the fact that we are practicing comprehension strategies unconsciously. I like how you mentioned that practicing these concepts unconsciously is what teachers are trying to get students to do subconsciously. This statement stuck out to me because I never really thought about what it is exactly that teachers want from students on the topic of comprehension. I mean every teacher wants their students to comprehend what they read and learn, but how we can we make sure that they start practicing comprehension strategies without knowing it? I always think it is so interesting to think about all of the strategies and skills that we read about in this course and practice without knowing. Personally, I think the only way to get children to think about things without knowing it is out of practice. Repetition usually results in the goal that teachers are trying to reach with comprehension strategies.
I thought that your story about the girl you worked with was interesting. I think it is wonderful that she knew the text did not make sense when she skipped a line. This is proof that she comprehends what she is reading because if she was not paying attention and comprehending, she would have just skipped a line without knowing it did not make sense. Did you give her any tips that may help her from skipping lines? I know I was always taught to run my finger across the page with the words I read. This may help her from getting confused with what she reads as well. I cannot believe that she examined the picture and pointed out what she would have put in the picture. I have never seen a child doing this and I think that would be interesting to see a child comprehending the text so in depth. I am used to working with children that struggle with comprehension strategies. Since she seemed to comprehend the text so well, what kind of questions did you ask her about the reading that made her think about the text even more?
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