Teaching reading comprehension is one thing that I think will be a challenge for me as a future teacher. All of the readings for today give great tips for teaching reading comprehension. "What Every Teacher Should Know About Comprehension" was probably the most helpful article for me. It give several definitions of comprehension and highlights the importance of comprehension for elementary students. One thing I took from the article was how important it is to activate prior knowledge in order to help develop comprehension. I think that introducing a text and doing think-alouds is a great way to activate prior knowledge.
I really liked the kindergarten article, because as I have said before, I will be in kindergarten next year. I think a lot of teachers don't realize the importance of starting to develop reading comprehension at this age. Making connections is mentioned in several of the articles and I think that is extremely important. I love the idea of the "Velcro Theory" and sticking ideas to your brain so you can remember them.
"The Comprehension Matrix: a Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction" article breaks teaching comprehension down so it is easier to grasp. Teachers need to understand how comprehension occurs, in order to be able to teach strategies for reading comprehension. Similar to the first article, "the comprehension matrix" article also goes on to talk about the importance of prior knowledge in reading comprehension. I am in the Urban Multicultural cohort so we talk a lot about how each student is a unique individual, so I really liked the point that this article made about the Transactional theory. Each student is different and has been exposed to different experience, therefore the message they take from a text could be different from other classmates, or even the teacher; so I think that is very important for a teacher to recognize when teaching reading comprehension.
Chapter 7 thinks of comprehension as the prime motivator for engaging in reading, and I would have to agree. Being able to comprehend texts accurately will encourage students to read more, and find more books of their interest. I like the idea of making predictions before reading a text, so that students minds start working and they can be engaged in the reading. I also like the idea of the KWL chart. I actually filled out a KWL chart in one of my classes for this summer and found it to be very helpful.
Courtney, I really liked the Kindergarten article as well because I also will be student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom next year. I also lead the discussion on this article. I remember doing the same activities that these Kindergartners were doing in third grade. I was honestly could not believe how much has changed in so little time! I feel like reading comprehension strategies are so important and all the steps within the process are so crucial for actually getting this strategy to stick! I also like your comment about the Transactional theory because I feel like especially in an urban school you can go a long way with this theory!! You did a great job as a discussion leader yesterday! Look forward to reading your next blog :)
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