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!!