Dawn Mitchell's December Blog 5: Teach Comprehension Regie Routman's Chapter 8

Dawn Mitchell's Teach Comprehension Regie Routman's Chapter 8

During the month of December our application we are working on learning about theories that have shaped literacy and reflecting on how they have changed our practices as well as applying inquiry based learning in our planning for a unit of study we will teach in the coming spring semester.  

In December’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources including the four theories that we are sharing with you such as Cambourne’s Conditons of Learning, Halliday’s Functions of Language, L1 to L2 Transfer, and Marie Clay’s Reading/Writing Reciprocity  to read and reflect upon.  We have worked to embed two new tech tools, QR codes and Google Forms into your reading/writing workshop that can also be used in your classroom.  Lastly, you will find the new 2015-2016 SC ELA Inquiry standards that can help you enhance your existing units of study through the use of student-driven, inquiry-based learning.

This month for my blog post, I have chosen to read chapter 8 from Routman’s Reading Essentials for many reasons.  First of all, I believe that reading is meaning and without understanding what they are gleaning from texts, students aren’t really reading even if they are the best word callers/decoders on the planet. Without meaning, they are just words.  Second, with current reform initiatives in place in our state and across the country that focus on third grade comprehension it is vital that we realize that comprehension and comprehension instruction starts way before that.  We can’t wait until third grade to determine if our students are ready as readers. We have to keep comprehension in mind from the very start.

Routman says, “In my continuing work in schools, its’ rarely a lack of word work that prevents students from understanding.  It’s almost always not having the background, prior experiences, or knowledge of the way texts and authors work that stumps them – not knowing that good readers are aware of their understanding or lack of it and always do whatever is necessary to make sense of what they are reading.  You can’t start teaching comprehension in grade 3.  You start teaching it the day kids enter preschool or kindergarten.” (Routman, pg. 118)

One of the major points Routman made in this chapter that really convicted me and helped to improve my practice is her point that reading strategies are not synonymous with comprehension and are not meant to be taught in isolation.  I have been a reading/writing workshop girl since back in the day and consider myself to promote and implement the teaching of reading and writing in the authentic context of their own reading and writing.  When I read Routman’s explanation of a typical classroom’s reading instruction I realized that I have too often taught a proficient reading strategy that way.  I have introduced a reading strategy in a minilesson, employed metacognition and modeling, and then had students work to apply that strategy using sticky notes or reading responses to help strengthen their reading.  I realized that many times that took out the authenticity of their independent reading and either simplified a complex, cognitive process into one strategy and weakened their overall comprehension of the text by focusing all of their efforts on one strategy.  Routman says that actually makes reading harder. 

She writes, “Students become so focused on identifying words they don’t know, questions to ask, or connections to make that they forget to read for overall meaning.  While its fine to introduce and practice strategies one at a time, remember that when we read we use all these strategies at the same time and that our comprehension process is largely unconscious.”

I love her question at the end of page 119, “Continue to ask yourself, “How is this procedure helping my students become more proficient and independent as readers?” This is a question that I will use to guide my instruction and I want to be more conscious of my reading application time to ensure that it is not either oversimplified or made harder because of inauthentic instruction. 

Other take aways for me from this chapter include:

*the 20 percent to 80 percent rule where the majority of the time in reading instruction is spent on student application

*the questions given on page 120 to help us focus on strategic reading rather than individual strategies

*megacognitive strategies on page 121 such as rereading, highlighting, writing down, survey, connect, and monitor

*teaching self-monitoring (I love the checklist of strategies on page 125)

On page 129 Routman says, “There is a huge difference between strategy instruction and strategic instruction.  Just teaching strategies is not enough.  Strategies must be “invoked” by the learner if they are to be used to increase understanding.”  I agree and appreciate the clear call to create opportunities for our students to apply what they are learning about reading in authentic ways in their own independent reading with support, with modeling, and with an undeniable purpose to understand what they are reading.

Sincerely,

Dawn

Norma Blanton Blog Post 4: Ch. 8 Routman Teach Comprehension

To be able to confidently teach comprehension is the gold standard for any teacher.  There are multiple books written on the subject, and classes for teachers that promise success if you just follow principles 1,2, and 3.  Routman dispels that approach early in the chapter when she says that strategies have become synonymous with comprehension when “ at best, they are a tool for facilitating and extending comprehension.” P. 119.  She says focusing on the strategies can actually make reading harder. 

One thing Routman says that I wish she would have discussed more fully is that you have to start teaching comprehension in preschool/kindergarten.  I would have appreciated an explanation of how to do that when early reading focuses on sounds and sight words.  I struggle with knowing what this looks like on the K level.  So much of my time as an ESOL teacher is spent on vocabulary acquisition, that I only get to see comprehension on a very basic level. 

She says that 80% of the time should be spent on reading, and just 20% of the time on instruction.  I liked his concept of “strategic reading.”

My favorite part of this chapter was the discussion applying personal comprehension processes.  I would love to have the time to discuss professional articles with my colleagues.   I learn best as I process what I think as I am talking.  Listening to others do the same would be a great learning experience.   Maybe an exercise in our next class?

I liked the “I know I understand what I am reading when I can….” Chart.  This would be a great personal rubric for older readers.  It would be a great bookmark as well.

Personally I applied the suggestions found on p.121 this weekend while I was reading a New York Times article on ISIS.  I started and stopped and started again.  It was very confusing and while I wanted to finish I didn’t feel like I had the mental energy it would take to understand it. I almost gave up.  Then I wrote out some questions I had, highlighted a few words I needed to look up, talked about it out loud with myself, and finally went back and re-read the article.  After I used these comprehension strategies I was able to understand what I needed from the article. I don't remember anyone specifically teaching me these strategies during school.  But I stuck with it, even though it was hard becauseI love reading to learn, and I have a love of the learning process itself.  So that magically happened because as a student along the way someone instilled that love in me.  So if we could figure out how that happened, we could...........write a book about it, or design a class!!

Melissa Anderson. Miller, Section 1

Melissa Anderson

Miller Section 1: Not this

11-30-15

                As I read this section I felt as though the focus was pointing out that we all have time waster that we do in our classroom routines that we might need to re-evaluate to see if they need to continue. I thought about what my time wasters are. They include calling roll for each class that comes to me, how I move 1^st graders to the mat, and how I pass out books. I am sure there are others. So in evaluating these procedures, are there some that I could change to make better use of my time with my students? I can certainly justify each as a safety precaution or a way to make my life easier as a teacher. This section has me thinking about ways to improve the quality of the time I have with my students. 

Blog 4 Guided Reading (Routman chpt 10) (Lisa Edge)

Routman-Chpt 10: Examine Guided Reading

I was relieved to see that Routman does support homogeneous grouping in kindergarten. This is important in order to focus on specific skills that students need to master. However, I want to be mindful to provide lots of opportunities for flexible grouping. We have done some partner reading, but I want to include more of that in my lesson plans, so that opportunity doesn’t get put on the back burner. I’m also intrigued on literacy circles in kindergarten. I’d like to see what that really looks like.

A huge problem I see with guided reading in kindergarten is book selection. There just is not a lot of choices for high interest books with VERY simple text. Although, this does remind me that I would like to find more wordless books. Wouldn’t it be cool for students to write their own words for a wordless book?

I still have trouble establishing my schedule. It’s more challenging with younger students to have an hour long block, and have some students work independently. I need to teach more literacy centers so students can work independently while Ms. Hazel and I are working with reading groups.

I love, love, love that Routman advocates sufficient time for playing, building, painting and acting out stories. It seems the push to teach more standards has left little time for students to develop language and social skills through play. Most days my students get to have center time, but honestly it is the first thing to get cut if we run short on time.

It was also eye-opening that the model classroom described did not have guided reading groups, but had other hands-on, real experiences for students including book baskets, a morning message, many reading and writing opportunities and as many as SIX read alouds per day! I struggle to fit in 2 read alouds and I know that typically our students have not received sufficient read aloud time prior to starting school.

I found the guidelines at the end of the chapter to be very useful. I noticed immediately that our selection of books used for guided reading does not easily lend itself to deep thought by students. I think for kindergarten deep thinking about books is more readily accommodated in read alouds.

Above all, this chapter deepens my resolve to have various reading activities throughout the day and give those activities priority over heavily structured, inflexible groups.