Tina Nottingham - Blog post 3: October: Ch. 8: Teaching Comprehension

      The first paragraph of this article describes my special education students exactly.  My students spend most of their energy trying to decode unfamiliar words which causes most of their efforts to be spent on trying to read rather than reading.  We see this a lot in Resource due to the fact that most of our students are 1-2 plus years behind in reading by the time that they are placed in special education.  They have limited sight word vocabularies and often times do not understand the meanings of words due to esol or limited exposure to reading early on.   They are literal thinkers who struggle to obtain deeper meaning from the stories that they read.  The article discusses the need for less direct instruction teaching and more independent reading time.  This is a roadblock for my students due to the fact that they require direct instruction and often time one on one instruction for most tasks.  Another point that was made is that reading comprehension has to start in preschool or Kindergarten.  Unfortunately, these same students who have learning disabilities never master this skill early on therefore they struggle with comprehension their entire academic careers.  I agree with the suggestion that texts need to be challenging and interesting.  The curriculum that I use is based on non-fiction texts which the students enjoy and can relate to things that they are learning in their classrooms.  The challenge is finding texts that match their instructional level that also appeal to their experiences.  I feel it is important for me to go back and demonstrate some of the strategies that are listed in the article.  I will have to focus on one or two strategies at a time to make sure that my students aren’t overwhelmed and actually develop an understanding of these strategies.  I would like to start with making connections and asking questions.  These are skills that I believe my students can be successful at.  Other strategies can be introduced as they get better at these.  I will have to monitor their progress to make sure that they are actually uses these strategies.  One strategy that I use consistently is re-reading.  We spend a lot of time re-reading stories.  This helps with fluency and comprehension.  We also talk about making connections to other stories that we have read to check for memory and understanding.  A strategy that most of my students struggle with is self-monitoring.  They are unaware of the idea that they need to be questioning their reading and their understanding.  They are so focused on getting through a passage and decoding words that they don’t think to stop and ask themselves questions or to question what the author’s purpose is.  I am excited to try these strategies with my students and see how their comprehension improves.  Hopefully, I will see some positive changes in the way that they respond to our texts and see some growth in closing the gap in reading.