A big problem I face frequently as a teacher is the process of my students comprehending what they’re reading whether that be an informational text or a narrative – comprehension is always at the front of my mind. Brown & Dewitz argue that for different genres comes different approaches to best teach comprehension. Although I agree to a certain extent, I believe that a wide range of vocabulary knowledge and the skills to decode should be prioritized above all else regardless of what genre one is reading. I also agreed fully with the statement “monitoring is quite simply vital to comprehension (Keene & Zimmermann 2007).Combining the monitoring with vocabulary to ensure that a student can monitor their understanding of the vocabulary as individual words and then as phrases and continually to whole sentences and paragraphs is vital for students to excel at comprehending any genre of text.
For teaching comprehension in literature, there are two methods. First, the Anthology approach is where the teacher is assigning selections for the whole class to read where skills, vocabulary, and knowledge is introduced and after the reading is completed, the students discuss (Brown & Dewitz, 2014). The other method is the Reading Workshop Approach where the student is selecting the text that is being read and the student engages in conferences with the teacher (Brown & Dewitz, 2014). Regardless of which method is used, both must come back to the good comprehender model. To comprehend means one must understand what is being read. In other words, comprehension is understanding and knowledge. I believe that to ensure that all students can be as close to an equal playing field as possible, the Anthology approach works best. Like Keene and Zimmerman were stating with how our lived experiences have a huge role with our understanding (Keene & Zimmermann 2007), it is harder for students to understand a text about a topic that they have no relation to. Studies have also shown it is easier for students to comprehend a topic if they already have some type of background/initial knowledge of it.
With the anthology approach, the teacher is able to bring any background knowledge to the students where as if all students were reading different texts, the teacher would find it harder to ensure all students have some bit of knowledge of what is being read. In addition, I think it is harder to ensure all common core standards are being hit with the Reading Workshop Approach. I do agree with the authors that interest and motivation to read and comprehend plays a big role in comprehension but I think the Anthology approach should be combined with the Reading Workshop Approach. In my school’s curriculum, we have several anthology stories that focus on the same theme, skill, and strategy. The teacher could group these stories and allow the students to choose which would increase interest, also increasing motivation, and ultimately increasing comprehension.
Modeling for students what it looks like to stop, pause, wonder, and resume reading is also critical. Some students are not able to process how things work if they don’t have a step by step example. In my classroom, I have had several students “ohh” and “ahh” after I have modeled how to summarize or modeled how to ask questions and find the answers. Showing students to relate what they’re currently reading with information before and after and developing a type of scheme also helps students comprehend what they’re reading (Keene & Zimmermann 2007).
Like Brown & Dewtiz were describing with comprehending informational texts, teachers can combine informational texts with narratives to increase motivation as well. The example used in Building Comprehension in Every Classroom with Mr. Rodiguez evaluating a text’s potential in three areas (content, writing, design) I found to be very interesting. I had never looked at information texts with the concept of writing in the back of my head. I think it will be interesting to implement this into my Science curriculum to see if students can take an informational text and implement that into our writing during our ELA block.
I also agree with the authors that graphic organizers chosen with intent and purpose “that will help students capture the structure of ideas in the text” (Brown & Dewitz, 2014). From personal experience, I believe that graphic organizers are great tools but should not be the main priority. In other words, if I am teaching about cause and effect, I think a graphic organizer is great to relate ideas to one another but I also think it’s equally as important that students are able to explain why something is the cause and why something is the effect. I believe this will also improve comprehension among children.
References:
Brown, R., & Dewitz, P. (2014). Building comprehension in every classroom: Instruction with literature, informational texts, and basal programs New York, NY: Guilford.
Keene, E. O., & Zimmermann, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought: The power of comprehension strategy instruction: second edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Cognition, Comprehension, and Content 