The goal of reading is comprehension.

Comprehension is a complex,

abstract activity.

~Kylene Beers, When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do, p. 38

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny ipormetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

From Deeper Reading by Kelly Gallagher

There are tork gooboos of puzballs, including laplies, mushos, and fushos. Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they do not grunto any lipples. In order to geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples, you should bartle the fusho who has rarckled the parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.

1. How many gooboos of puzballs are there?There are tork gooboos of puzballs.

2. What are laplies, mushos, and fushos?Laplies, mushos, and fushos are tork gooboos of puzballs.

3. Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they will not what?They will not grunto any lipples.

4. How can you geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples?You should bartle the fusho who has rarckled her parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

’Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every text is a lazy machine asking the reader to do some of its work.

~Umberto Eco

Reading a book is like rewriting it for yourself . . . You bring to a

novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you

read it in your own terms.

~Angela Carter

Reading is a creative activity.

~Madeleine L’Engle

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

~Edmund Burke

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Comprehension

Reading is a social process, an interactive activity, one in which readers create meaning through transactions—interactions—with the text, their prior knowledge, the context, and other readers.

~Kylene Beers, p. 38

What Good Readers Do

• Recognize that reading is a meaning-making process

• Use a variety of comprehension strategies (predict, summarize, question, visualize, etc.)

• Make a range of inferences• Use prior knowledge• Monitor their understanding of the text• Question the author’s purpose and point of

view

What Good Readers Do

• Use text features (headings, bold, italics, charts, graphs, etc.)

• Evaluate their engagement and enjoyment

• Know meanings and use context clues, root words, affixes

• Recognize most words automatically, read fluently, vary their reading rate, and “hear” the text as they read

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.Prior knowledge is the main determinant of

comprehension.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Comprehension

Reading is a complex, purposeful, social and cognitive process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning.

~A Call to Action: “What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs,” NCTE

The ProcedureThe procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their makeup. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell.

~ John D. Bransford and Nancy S. McCarrell, “A Sketch of a Cognitive Approach to Comprehension”

Doing LaundryThe procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their makeup. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell.

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.Prior knowledge is the main determinant of

comprehension.Reading is a staged and recursive process.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Teaching Tips

• Introduce just one strategy at a time.

• Model the activity yourself, as you explain to students how to use it.

• Practice the strategy first as a whole class.

• As student make use of the strategy during in-class reading time, move around the room to observe, facilitate, and help.

Teaching Strategies

• Showing kids how smart readers think

• Before: activities that prepare students to read

• During: helping students construct, process, and question ideas as they read

• After: guiding student to reflect on, integrate, and share the ideas when they’re finished

• Learning vocabulary

Why Think Aloud?

Much of what happens with texts in classrooms gives students the mistaken impression that reading comprehension happens by magic. To begin to build a repertoire of activities for reading comprehension, students need to have the reading process demystified. They need to see what happens inside the mind of a proficient reader, someone who is willing to make the invisible visible by externalizing his or her mental activity.

~ Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko and Hurwitz, Reading for Understanding, p. 212