Ashley's post for 3/23

Chapter 2 of Janet Allen’s Reading History: A Practical Guide to Improving Literacy introduces a variety of strategies used to support and monitor comprehension during reading.  As said on page 29, our task as teachers is a two- fold consisting of the expansion of the range of reading that students define as reading history and increasing students’ ability to comprehend that range of texts (including their textbooks).  In other words, it is our job to broaden the range of reading in history and helping students to fully understand a variety of texts. I agree. It is imperative that students comprehend a variety of texts because history can’t simply be learned through a textbook. Another very valid point that Allen made on page 31 is that “teacher led instruction in reading strategies and other aspects of comprehension promotes reading achievement but there is very little direct comprehension instruction in most American classrooms”. This is a major issue because direct comprehension is necessary for students reading abilities.

In order to spark the interests of students it is important to make the content relatable to their lives. Christine has one student, Natalia, whose only concern was to get out of school and get married and she wasn’t interested in any of the subject material. That is, until Christine taught a lesson on women in the 1700s. Natalia found a connection when during this lesson and Christine realized that it was going to take to have her students make connections. This had me thinking about how difficult it really is to connect and relate material to each and every student, which seems like a great challenge. If a student isn’t interested in learning, they won’t want to. This is also difficult because “the role of classroom conversation is one of the most critical factors in supporting comprehension” (page 32). Having connective discussions that connect to earlier topics and to student’s experiences and backgrounds will enable them to learn.

On pages 33 and 34 the first method called “Questions Game”, created by Frank McTeague, is introduced. This strategy is the most effective according to Christine. It is used to get students to ask important questions on their reading. Basically, each student reads the assigned texts and jots down three questions he or she would like answered. Then, the students are put into pairs and they have to help each other answer each other’s questions. After that, the students are combined with another team and they have to come up with one question that is still unanswered to bring to the whole class discussion. Although Christine finds this to be the most effective strategy I personally did not like this strategy. I feel like a number of things could go wrong during a lesson like this. For example, lets say the students don’t have any questions, or not enough to have a discussion. In order for this method to work I think that the text would have to be very controversial.

One of the methods I liked the most was “Word Illumination Writing Prompts” on page 40. Here, students explain a word so that a friend can understand its meaning, then they choose one of the characters or historical figures we have encountered and write some dialogue for a scene where that person would use this word and then they would list other words someone might use in place of that word. This allows students to be creative. Creativity will be very important in my classroom because I believe that students learn best when they can express themselves while learning. In fact, on page 40 she says that “students enjoy the creative aspect of showing you they know the word its context and application- this exercise makes the words more memorable and meaningful.” I couldn’t agree more.

The rest of the methods try to rid the obstacles of comprehension that occur when they are presented with a diverse range of text types. Some strategies presented are more realistic and better constructed than others but overall I would love to use a lot of these in my own classroom one day. This book is really allowing me to see the different range and variety of ways to help my students comprehend what they are reading.