November- Teach Comprehension

I love to read, but I have a hard time breaking down all the individual skills required to read, and teaching each skill separately seems kind of artificial. The first page in this chapter says that the emphasis on skills, like word calling and fluency, should not be at the expense of comprehension. Instead of just assessing comprehension, I need to spend more time actually teaching comprehension. I realize, from reading this chapter, that I need to spend a certain amount of time explicitly teaching the strategies that have been proven beneficial for achieving full comprehension. I liked the 20% to 80% rule: explicit strategy instruction should take up no more than 20 % of the reading class, and the rest of the time should be spent with students actually reading and applying the strategies.
I plan to use the reread and retell strategy more often in the next few weeks. My students took the STAR test today, and I noticed that some of them, when frustrated, simply guessed at an answer instead of rereading and trying to work through vocabulary or concepts they did not understand. Since my students love to talk (!),  rereading and retelling with a partner might be very effective for them.
As our focus shifts more toward non-fiction, the section about surveying texts before reading seems especially pertinent. Since my class has a huge range of reading levels, the section that reminds me to use texts that are easy enough to support comprehension is important. A couple of my students are first grade level readers, and sometimes I do not have enough materials in my room for them to read independently.
This chapter was definitely a good reminder that I need to teach my developing readers valuable strategies, teach them why and when to use those strategies, and then provide plenty of practice to employ the strategies!