Who knew there were so many different strategies to teach reading?

In continuing the topic of reading strategies, Benjamin had some great insights into strategies for the reader to use during the reading process and afterward to help them retain the new information.  There is a lot of repetition in this book.  The author seems to reiterate what she has already said in nearly every chapter.  I can’t help but think this is to help me as the reader of her book to retain the information that she is presenting.  After all, repetition is key to successful learning.  The reader must be engaged, they must have prior knowledge of the subject in order to make meaningful connections and learn new information, and there must be a purpose for reading. 

It is important during the reading process for the reader to recognize and be aware of when their concentration and comprehension breaks down so they can get back on track and repair the gaps in the comprehension.  Benjamin discusses meta-reading, which implies that the reader is thinking about reading and learning.  It is also called self-talk.  This self-talk is what helps us stay on track.   For example you may say to yourself, “Wait a minute, I’m not sure I understood that sentence, let me go back and read it again more slowly this time.”  Another example could be, “Oh there’s that word again.  I’m still not sure what it means, maybe by reading the surrounding sentences, I can figure it out.”  

 

Trouble with comprehension is a common problem caused by either internal or external factors.  An internal factor would be if the reader doesn’t have the prior knowledge to understand the new material.  In this case, the reader would need to scaffold in order to understand the text.  An external problem would be sensory interference such as noise, uncomfortable physical conditions or insufficient light.

 It can help a reader to comprehend a text by recognizing textual pattern clusters.  These include:

1.       Narrative and description

2.       Classification, definition, exemplification

3.       Cause and effect, comparison/contrast

4.       Process analysis (sequence)

Reading in the each individual content area has its own textual pattern cluster.  Any kind of story will be narrative and descriptive, newspaper editorials will have cause and effect, comparison/contrast, a biology textbook will have classification, definition, exemplification, and mathematics and foreign language texts will have process analysis. 

In the real world of teaching, we know it doesn’t stop here.  It is important to recognize if a reader may be struggling with the text and one way we can do this is by assessing comprehension after the reading.  Post-reading exercises can tell us a lot about whether a student understands and is retaining the material they have just read.  Traditionally this would come in the form of a quiz or test however the author calls those, “Guess-what-you-have-to-remember assessment”.  She suggests a few wrap-up activities that could be more beneficial to the students.  Having the students write a sentence expressing the main idea or maybe some supportive details is a good way to assess comprehension.  She stresses the importance of including some vocabulary in the wrap-up activity and asking them to make inferences about the reading.  Another good after-reading activity is an out loud question and answer segment, where the teacher asks the class questions about the reading and then calls on students to answer.  We need to look for opportunities on a regular basis that allow students to tie their learning into their own culture.  Wrap-up activities create a link between the known and the new information.  I don’t have experience teaching kids yet but I do teach patient education classes at the hospital I work at, and I always make it a point to leave a little time for a question and answer segment at the end of the class.  I ask the patients questions from the material I just presented and call on them to answer.  It has proven to be most effective in helping them to understand and retain what they had just learned.  

 


References
Benjamin, Amy.  But I’m Not A Reading Teacher: Strategies for Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas.  Larchmont, NY.  Eye on Education, 2007