Amanda Justice Blog Post 5

Routman, Chapter 8:  Teach Comprehension

“Student’s don’t automatically comprehend just because they can read the words.”  This statement is so true.  I have struggled with comprehension my entire life.  While I was taught to read the words on the page, comprehension was something I missed along the way. 

As I reflect on the information presented in this chapter, I am taken back to my elementary school days as a first grade student.  I have so many memories from my first grade classroom, but the thing that sticks out the most is being a struggling reader.  I remember being in the lowest reading group.  Although my teacher never labeled us as “low,” we knew we were different from the other students in the class.  I can remember the embarrassment of being called on to read a passage in front of the class and struggling to do so.  As I continued through first grade my mom hired a tutor to help me learn to read.  In our sessions we focused on word calling and used flash cards often.  I learned to read that year with the help of many people and even advanced reading groups.  What I didn’t learn were comprehension skills.

 

As a struggling reader, I believe the focus for me and those helping me became learning to read the words on the page.  Everyone was focused on whether or not I could identify and recall words, that no one questioned whether I was making sense of the text.  As teachers, I believe it is so easy to overlook comprehension of struggling readers.  It is so easy to focus on helping struggling readers learn to recite and recall words that we often neglect to realize whether these students are making meaning of the text.  During my first few years of teaching I can remember working with struggling readers and getting so excited when it seemed like things started to “click.”  We celebrated the student being able to read.  I focused so much attention on what I thought was most important that I neglected comprehension.  Even as a student who grew up struggling with comprehension, I never thought about how I could help my own students with this skill.

      

I love the part of the chapter that discusses how students who spell all of the words correctly on spelling tests often misspell the same words during writing.  While they know the strategy for spelling the words, they do not apply these strategies when writing.  As teachers we must keep this in mind.  Just because a student is able to complete strategy exercises, does not mean that they know how to apply them.  We must allow time for students to practice using the strategies we teach in meaningful ways.  Independent reading is a perfect example of providing students with time to practice comprehension strategies along with other strategies students are learning.

   

Through planning great read alouds for my students, I hope to be able to help improve and enhance comprehension skills.   Carefully planned read alouds will provide me the opportunity to really model my own comprehension strategies for my students.  Then as students move to independent reading they will have the chance to practice these strategies individually as well as with their friends.