Lucile Kershaw's Blog-"Teach Comprehension" by Regie Routman- Reading Essentials

     I enjoyed reading this chapter, because as educators, teaching comprehension is our ultimate goal.
Routman jumps right in and tells us to teach comprehension right from the start in preschool and not to wait to teach children how to comprehend in the upper grades.  According to( Routman, p.117), "If we want kids to wind up with comprehension, we have to begin with comprehension."  We should start teaching comprehension strategies with the texts students are reading and guide students toward texts that encourage critical thinking and problem solving.  I have always believed that comprehension strategies should not be taught in isolation, because students end up with lots of skills and no knowledge of how to transfer or apply them.  Most reading programs will have the children practicing a skill for a week.  When the next week comes, they move on to another skill and the kids usually forget about the previous skill if it is not continuously practiced in their reading as well as in their writing.  Students need to practice strategies that they are learning in multiple ways.
     We as teachers need to re-evaluate some practices that we use in the classroom to ensure that what we are teaching or how we are teaching will be beneficial to our students in helping them to become more proficient independent readers.  We never want to make reading hard for our students.  We hope that they will enjoy reading and become lifelong readers, so we need to equip them with the necessary skills.
       After reading this chapter, I realized that I was not using the 20% to 80% rule.  I was probably using more time in teaching reading strategies than allowing students to spend 80% of reading time in the actual act of reading.
     Teaching reading strategies is great, but what the teacher does as a reader is far more important,
according to (Routman, p. 121), teachers should make their reading and thinking process visible to their students.
     I learned that the most useful reading strategy for any age is rereading.  When students are given the opportunity to reread, their comprehension always goes up, (Routman p. 122).
     In my classroom, we always preview a text before reading.  I ask them to read the title/heading and turn it into a question.  Then, we look at pictures or just thumb through the book to get a feel for what it is going to be about and make predictions.  All of this sets a purpose for reading.  I tell them to formulate questions and as they read or I read to them, their questions will be answered and comprehension will be enhanced.
     We should formatively assess our students to ensure that they are comprehending and not just word calling and that they are unconsciously using the strategies that have been taught.