November Blog Stevie Fields-Ch. 8 Teach Comprehension

Routman says “We are turning out lots of superficial readers. They look and sound competent. They read smoothly…but they are unable to go further.” So far this year, as I’ve spent time conferencing with my students and trying to get to know them as reader, this is something I’ve found to be true. Many of my students are beautiful word callers but their comprehension is another story. Routman goes on to talk about comprehension strategies that can be used in the classroom. I already teach a few of these strategies but one that stood out to me was rereading. I often tell my students to reread the text when they don’t understand and I get frustrated with many of them because I know that they don’t do it. But I realized that I have never discussed with them what it means to reread the text, how to do it, or why they should do.  I just assume that they know what I mean. I like how Routman suggests showing students how rereading can help my comprehension by reading an article, discussing it with them, reading it again and then showing how my understanding of the content has increased. I also liked the list of questions students can ask themselves before or after rereading. Rereading is a strategy I use often and I ask myself some of those very questions when I do it. It now seems obvious that I would model this for them.