Cassie Heinz- Blog Post 6- Routman's Teach Comprehension

I chose to read this chapter because I feel like comprehension is one of the most challenging aspects for students to wrap their minds around. I spent the beginning of the year teaching a variety of strategies through the CAFE list and have spent all year teaching comprehension in a variety of content areas, but I still notice students are not always aware of whether or not they are comprehending the text. When I conference with my students, I ask them questions about the text and often times they have to think for a while or look back to find the answer. They seem completely unaware that they have not comprehended the text they have just read. My goal is to have my student self assess their own comprehension during independent reading so they are better able to understand the text. I also want them to understand that I (and all good readers) have to constantly use these strategies. These strategies are not just things they can use in 5th grade to help them understand, but they are strategies they can use for the rest of their reading lives. Just recently I read Salt to the Sea  and had to reread the last part of the book several times to understand how it ended since it ended with a letter written by a person not mentioned previously in the book.

Just recently I have started doing book clubs with my students. We have all really enjoyed it and I have seen a drastic improvement in their comprehension. Writing notes and discussing it with their group has held them more accountable for comprehension. It has also helped them to better understand parts of the text that maybe they didn't understand on their own. I have enjoyed listening to their discussions about the texts. My hope for them is to realize they don't need a book club to discuss texts with others- they can do it all on their own. Most of the books I pick up have been recommended to me by others. It is really fun for me to read books that others have recommended because I am able to discuss my understanding, connections, and predictions with them. My 14 year old cousin lent me her copy of Salt to the Sea and I just had a discussion with her last week about what was going on with the book and our thoughts and opinions about it.

My goal as a teacher is to pay better attention to whether or not my students are truly comprehending texts (especially on a deeper level). Routman says that "students routinely skip words they can't read or don't understand, continue reading even when they don't know what's going on in the text, and rarely reread for clarification" (121). I have noticed all of these things during my conferencing and am planning on modeling even more how to use these strategies during independent reading. Routman gave me a lot of ideas to help improve comprehension and I plan to use several of these checklists to help guide my instruction.