Chapter 8 - Extending Meaning, After Reading Strategies

This chapter had a lot of strategies that I have already used, and it also contained one that I keep seeing everywhere and still haven't tried! The Likert Scale she lists first in the chapter has been promoted through different reading seminars I have been to and several of my classes here at Kent State. I even had a professor use this scale for us at the end of books we read, and then she really used them in her lessons with us. I have seen them adapted for students with special needs by using pictures or smiley faces. I am very interested in the Retellings strategies as well. This is something that my students would probably not be successful at the first few times we did it. I also think it would have to be paired with a strategy from Chapter 7 in order to make sure they know what they read before I had them do this. I liked the chart given to show how to keep track of the progress the student will make over time. This is a great way to have some concrete progress monitoring in the classroom for IEP's and parent conferences.

Chapter 7 Contstructing Meaning During Reading Strategies

On page 104 of this chapter our author talks about her feelings about talking during text rather than saving conversation until the end. I'm glad that I got confirmation that something I was doing was right! Although my experience with students has been different than most, the readers I deal with have always seemed to benefit from breaks in the text to absorb and discuss what has been read. Reading to the end of a passage or novel with no discussion often leaves the students confused and unsure about the text's meaning. With the fact that co-teaching is probably in my future, I sometimes wonder if the strategies I use on my readers will benefit the other students in the class. According to Beers, this type of talk will help everyone. The benefits she listed seem pretty significant, and it makes me wonder why more teachers don't see this approach as effective.

This is why my favorite strategy from this chapter is the "Think-Aloud." Giving students the opportunity to orally draw conclusions about the text and create visuals for themselves can only reap benefits and help the teacher progress monitor. It can give the teacher great insight about where a student is getting lost in the text and might give student's the portal they need to build concrete thoughts about what they are reading.

Chapter 5

Making inferences about text have never been a strong suit on my part. I often have worried that this would be something that I struggle with teaching in my classroom. After reading this chapter, I was able to identify a few of the skilled reader tasks that I struggle with (such as undersanding intonation of characters' words, understanding the author's view of the world, and recognizing the author's biases) that I can start working on more in order to improve my own inference skills. I absolultely loved the charting activity on page 64 and plan on using it at some point this semester with the class I'm working with. Often I think if they just paused to think these simple statements out loud and process them, making inferences and comprehending the text would come a lot easier to them.

I enjoyed getting some tools for my own toolbox so that this isn't something I avoid and dread teaching. After all, my attitude is going to effect the attitudes my students take on reading!