I believe it is important to explicitly teach comprehension strategies. Why do I believe this? Simple: teachers assume too much! We often assume that as long as we are choosing ability-level appropriate texts, our students will automatically know how to read, interpret, and analyze them. Wrong! We must teach students how to effectively and appropriately use these strategies.
Besides practice, practice, and more practice, I believe THE BEST way to do this is through MODELING! We must show our students how we use these strategies in our own reading and what using the strategy looks like. I have found that being silly is a great way to go about this. For example, when teaching making predictions to my 8th grade students, I use a short story called, "The Story of an Hour." I chunk up the story so they are forced to read it in parts. I choose the first chunk and model how I make a prediction. I put a fake light bulb above my head, I turn my head to exaggerate pondering, I put my hand on my head and scratch my head, I sigh and hmph, etc. You get the point. I make it a big deal! I then explain WHY I made these predictions. What evidence from the story did I use? What background knowledge or prior knowledge do I have that made me think this? What other story have I read or movie have I scene that sparked these thoughts?
In conclusion, I believe in explicit instruction of comprehension strategies. And don't forget to MODEL MODEL MODEL!
I'm glad you make a big deal of it, even at 8th grade. It will make it memorable, and students will will be more likely to try one of the things you did if they get stuck!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE how animated you are with it!!! Modeling in the best way to teach strategies so the students can SEE how it's done correctly!! We need to SHOW them how to use these strategies correctly rather than just TELLING them how to! "The Story of an Hour" is a great example for making predictions.
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