It's funny that, in Rachel's post (below), she received this chapter's focus on early elementary grades enthusiastically. I'm genuinely happy for her, since she should get to dig into some material that readily applies to what she cares about most. For me, however, to be quite honest, this reading had the opposite effect. I want to teach at the middle school level; the education of brand-new readers and writers, then, is less concerning for me.
Nevertheless, I found two big ideas that apply to my placement and my development as a future teacher. Here they are:
1. Rereading is encouraged. The first few pages of this chapter repeatedly tell of Ms. McCloskey reading a book to her children multiple times. The obvious assumption here is that rereading is more than okay - it's a good idea! In the time I've spent with three different CTs at various grade levels, I have only seen one of them reread a story to her class - yet it seemed as though weeks had elapsed between these readings. Rather than something to be avoided or used only to refamiliarize, the teacher described in the text seems to use rereading intentionally to help students understand the story better. After reading a story to her students, she let them retell it, using what they remember and the illustrations as aides, so that ELLs can experience the story orally and in the students' own words (pp. 78-9). She then rereads it a third and fourth time, digging deeper into plot and thematic elements, and working on word recognition (p. 79).
This is vastly different than what I see in my current CT's classroom. We have yet to revisit a text after she has read it the first time. Although she uses some of the same strategies as Ms. McCloskey, my CT simply cannot do as much in only one read-through - there isn't enough time, let alone student focus, to do more! The upside is that my CT can get through more books this way; the (more significant) downside is that students barely have time to experience and understand the books that she reads. There is little retelling, and even less word recognition. I think my CT could benefit from using more time and more strategies to read and teach each book.
Kids learn to write best when they are interested in the literacy activity. The part (later in the chapter) about alphabetic concepts interested me, since many of my first- and second-graders are still building their knowledge of basic sound-letter relationships. They have the best opportunity to do so when they are doing their own writing, since they are faced with the challenge of putting into letters and words the sounds of the words they say out loud or think in their heads. The presumption in the text is that this happens best when children really like what they are doing. When the students are intrinsically motivated to write, development of alphabetic knowledge happens quite naturally, since they feel the need and the desire to communicate their thoughts through the written word. When they are not interested, then writing becomes a chore, and it's easier for children to miss the important connection between spoken and written words.
In my CT's classroom, children often have the opportunity to write something at the beginning of the day. However, this is so structured that it does not tend to engage the students' interests. Last week, for instance, the children had to write a letter to another student in the classroom. So far, so good. Yet they were told to write the first sentence about the person they were writing to, the second about themselves, and the third having a question for the person they were writing to. Even though the lesson had the potential for engaging the students, its structure made the assignment much like any other writing assignment they have: not about the speech act itself, but about the form of that act. Students end up focusing so much on the form, since this is what the CT looks at as a basis to praise and scold. Thus, they think of writing firstly as following some set of rules and secondly about communicating meaningful thought. Anyone who loves to write, however, knows that good, fun writing is the opposite. This is how non-interesting writing hinders the students' writing development in my class.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Stages of reading and writing
I found this chapter in Tompkins to be extremely beneficial for several different reasons. I really liked how we finally got to read something dedicated to the lower elementary grades. I feel as though many of our readings and activities this semester have been focused towards upper elementary and being in a kindergarten class this year has made that a little frustrating.
The portion of Tompkins that I found to be one of the most beneficial was the chart entitled, "Instructional Recommendations for the Three Stages of reading and writing" (p. 97). I see many of these approaches being used in my classroom and the benefits from using them.
Reading Recommendations:
In kindergarten I have seen a lot of the reading strategies used for the emergent stage. My CT uses most of those listed on Tompkins chart but a few that I have seen her use more frequently are encouraging students to make predictions, having students respond to literature through talk and drawing, and teaching high frequency words.
My CT uses prediction a lot during literacy lessons. Usually the class will be seated at the carpet reading a class story and my CT will ask a few different students for their predictions on what the story might be about or how it might end. Because this is used so frequently in my classroom I decided to use it during my lesson as well. I was reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and I asked students to predict whether they thought the main character would end up trying the green eggs and ham. I paused briefly during the story to ask for the predictions.
Recently, my CT talked with the class about past, present, and future and read a story about what it used to be like in schools 150 years ago. The students were then asked to draw a picture and write a couple sentences about what they think schools will be like 150 years from now. I found that the students really enjoyed doing this and were excited to share out their ideas with myself and my CT.
Another thing that we have been focusing on is star words (high frequency words). These words are posted throughout the classroom and several weeks ago I was able to administer assessments to some of class to see how many star words they were able to identify.
Writing Recommendations:
In my kindergarten class morning message is part of their everyday routine. I have been fortunate enough to lead morning message a few different times and the students have seemed to gain a lot from it. The students read the message while I point to the words and there are sometimes questions they have to answer or missing letters that I ask them to fill in. I think that they benefit from this in a variety of ways. First, it requires the students to read something everyday. It also allows the students to be a part of a routine.
The portion of Tompkins that I found to be one of the most beneficial was the chart entitled, "Instructional Recommendations for the Three Stages of reading and writing" (p. 97). I see many of these approaches being used in my classroom and the benefits from using them.
Reading Recommendations:
In kindergarten I have seen a lot of the reading strategies used for the emergent stage. My CT uses most of those listed on Tompkins chart but a few that I have seen her use more frequently are encouraging students to make predictions, having students respond to literature through talk and drawing, and teaching high frequency words.
My CT uses prediction a lot during literacy lessons. Usually the class will be seated at the carpet reading a class story and my CT will ask a few different students for their predictions on what the story might be about or how it might end. Because this is used so frequently in my classroom I decided to use it during my lesson as well. I was reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss and I asked students to predict whether they thought the main character would end up trying the green eggs and ham. I paused briefly during the story to ask for the predictions.
Recently, my CT talked with the class about past, present, and future and read a story about what it used to be like in schools 150 years ago. The students were then asked to draw a picture and write a couple sentences about what they think schools will be like 150 years from now. I found that the students really enjoyed doing this and were excited to share out their ideas with myself and my CT.
Another thing that we have been focusing on is star words (high frequency words). These words are posted throughout the classroom and several weeks ago I was able to administer assessments to some of class to see how many star words they were able to identify.
Writing Recommendations:
In my kindergarten class morning message is part of their everyday routine. I have been fortunate enough to lead morning message a few different times and the students have seemed to gain a lot from it. The students read the message while I point to the words and there are sometimes questions they have to answer or missing letters that I ask them to fill in. I think that they benefit from this in a variety of ways. First, it requires the students to read something everyday. It also allows the students to be a part of a routine.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Comment on Nick's Post
Yo Nick - thanks for your comments. I'm glad you chose not to go over the already-charted territory of the eight comprehension strategies.
My CT also struggles with classroom management. I'd say that her biggest tool is a discipline board that has students' names on sticks. She moves the sticks up from green pouches on the bottom, to yellow ones, to orange, and finally to red. There are a couple problems with this being the focus of her classroom management. First, it is a punishment-focused system. Kids act well not to seek after rewards, but to avoid disciplinary actions. Second, it is inconsistent. Sometimes students can move down if the CT notices them behaving well, while other times their punishment is forgotten about. So, I'm not surprised that your CT's successful strategies both involve positive rewards.
I also really like the special buddy system - how clever! They understand that they could be picked with anyone else in the class; so, rather than competing with others, and having an incentive for them to do poorly, they want to see their classmates stay on task. I want to teach middle school, so as you hinted at, I'll need to modify that. But it's a great idea and something that could be beneficial in other grades as well.
Thanks for your ideas! - Dave
My CT also struggles with classroom management. I'd say that her biggest tool is a discipline board that has students' names on sticks. She moves the sticks up from green pouches on the bottom, to yellow ones, to orange, and finally to red. There are a couple problems with this being the focus of her classroom management. First, it is a punishment-focused system. Kids act well not to seek after rewards, but to avoid disciplinary actions. Second, it is inconsistent. Sometimes students can move down if the CT notices them behaving well, while other times their punishment is forgotten about. So, I'm not surprised that your CT's successful strategies both involve positive rewards.
I also really like the special buddy system - how clever! They understand that they could be picked with anyone else in the class; so, rather than competing with others, and having an incentive for them to do poorly, they want to see their classmates stay on task. I want to teach middle school, so as you hinted at, I'll need to modify that. But it's a great idea and something that could be beneficial in other grades as well.
Thanks for your ideas! - Dave
Monday, March 2, 2009
Connecting and Questioning
Rather than comment on all the comprehension strategies listed - I just talk/write too much to do that - I want to focus on one thing I see in my placement (connecting) and one thing I don't see (questioning), and talk about my thoughts on each.
Connecting: It's amazing how first- and second-grade students can learn not only how to do this, but to recognize when they or other students are doing it. I've heard a student say to my CT, "I've got a text-to... text infection!" (He probably didn't really say "infection," but what they said was so garbled that it could have been infection for all I know.) I believe this happens in my class for two main reasons. First, readers do this naturally. It is quite a normal thing - not just a thing that is done in classrooms, or at the request of a teacher - to read or hear something and go, "Oh! That relates to me!" At times, younger students need lots of help articulating exactly what this relationship is - i.e., what the text-to-self connection is - but they are ready with examples. Second, it happens because my teacher is always talking about these connections. She has introduced and repeatedly gone over the concept of text-to-___ connections with the class. Often, after she raises makes one of these connections herself, she will say, "See what I am doing, I am connecting the text to my own life. I've just made a... [and the class says this next part together:] text-to-self connection!" If the text gives the students a sort of cognitive framework or structure for thinking about a particular experience (let's say, being tricked by someone you know), text-to-self, -world and -text connections really fill in this structure in individualized ways for the students making the connections. This explains why that which different students learn from reading a text is usually related. The two students' learning don't tend to completely contradict one another, because they tend to get the same general structure of some lesson or experience. How this is filled in, however, is very subjective, which leaves room for large amounts of variability in student learning.
Questioning: There is a common rut that children fall into when they have a teacher doing most of the reading aloud, and when most of their assignments, if they have anything at all to do with the reading, are completely crafted by the teacher. Kids in this situation are used to being asked questions, and not used to asking questions themselves. Of course, there is nothing wrong with asking our students before-, during- and after-reading questions. In fact, these generally have great benefits to children: they help them look for particularly important elements of the text, make connections (like we talked about above), and gets them used to being active, thinking readers rather than passive, turn-their-brains-off readers. Yet well-developed critical thinking skills not only include the ability to receive and respond to questions, they include the ability to engage in the questioning process themselves. When I said that asking children questions "helps them look for particularly important elements of the text," that was a rather subjective statement. The elements I spoke of are particularly important in the eyes of the teacher, but they may or may not be in the eyes of the student. Questions, then, give students the chance to look for important elements themselves, and give them practice in reading to find meaning on their own. After all, they won't have a teacher scaffolding their literacy understanding all their life. This is something that I find missing in my CT's classroom. While she asks plenty of questions herself, the children have not begun to ask their own questions. I think this could especially guide after-reading activities. Rather than having the students answer questions all the time during their after-reading writing time, it would be great for them to write their own questions about the text - things that confused them, or made them curious, or connections they made.
Dave Koch
Connecting: It's amazing how first- and second-grade students can learn not only how to do this, but to recognize when they or other students are doing it. I've heard a student say to my CT, "I've got a text-to... text infection!" (He probably didn't really say "infection," but what they said was so garbled that it could have been infection for all I know.) I believe this happens in my class for two main reasons. First, readers do this naturally. It is quite a normal thing - not just a thing that is done in classrooms, or at the request of a teacher - to read or hear something and go, "Oh! That relates to me!" At times, younger students need lots of help articulating exactly what this relationship is - i.e., what the text-to-self connection is - but they are ready with examples. Second, it happens because my teacher is always talking about these connections. She has introduced and repeatedly gone over the concept of text-to-___ connections with the class. Often, after she raises makes one of these connections herself, she will say, "See what I am doing, I am connecting the text to my own life. I've just made a... [and the class says this next part together:] text-to-self connection!" If the text gives the students a sort of cognitive framework or structure for thinking about a particular experience (let's say, being tricked by someone you know), text-to-self, -world and -text connections really fill in this structure in individualized ways for the students making the connections. This explains why that which different students learn from reading a text is usually related. The two students' learning don't tend to completely contradict one another, because they tend to get the same general structure of some lesson or experience. How this is filled in, however, is very subjective, which leaves room for large amounts of variability in student learning.
Questioning: There is a common rut that children fall into when they have a teacher doing most of the reading aloud, and when most of their assignments, if they have anything at all to do with the reading, are completely crafted by the teacher. Kids in this situation are used to being asked questions, and not used to asking questions themselves. Of course, there is nothing wrong with asking our students before-, during- and after-reading questions. In fact, these generally have great benefits to children: they help them look for particularly important elements of the text, make connections (like we talked about above), and gets them used to being active, thinking readers rather than passive, turn-their-brains-off readers. Yet well-developed critical thinking skills not only include the ability to receive and respond to questions, they include the ability to engage in the questioning process themselves. When I said that asking children questions "helps them look for particularly important elements of the text," that was a rather subjective statement. The elements I spoke of are particularly important in the eyes of the teacher, but they may or may not be in the eyes of the student. Questions, then, give students the chance to look for important elements themselves, and give them practice in reading to find meaning on their own. After all, they won't have a teacher scaffolding their literacy understanding all their life. This is something that I find missing in my CT's classroom. While she asks plenty of questions herself, the children have not begun to ask their own questions. I think this could especially guide after-reading activities. Rather than having the students answer questions all the time during their after-reading writing time, it would be great for them to write their own questions about the text - things that confused them, or made them curious, or connections they made.
Dave Koch
For this weeks post on Tompkins chapter 7 I really liked Rachel's format and also found this chapter to be rather beneficial in laying out the key elements that work together to build students' comprehension of texts; however, I feel like she did an excellent job in explaining these eight components and her experiences with them in her collaborating classroom; therefore, I am going to focus on a few other aspects of the chapter in an attempt to avoid redundancy and bring some other aspects (which I believe to be equally important) to the surface.
Besides the eight components of comprehension I really liked that Tompkins pointed out some different teacher and student factors which contribute to the students' attitudes and overall attention and motivation. In regards to the teacher's role, some of the factors that were pointed out were the teacher's attitude, the community which they create within their classrooms, the instructional approaches they choose to use, and the system of rewards which they use (236-237). In my collaborating classroom I have been paying special attention to these factors in regards to the pedagogy of my CT. My CT, pretty much on a daily basis, is very positive and enthusiastic in regards to her teaching attitude. She shows her interest in the curriculum, therefore causing her students to become interested in what they are learning. This is an additional part of creating a good community within the classroom. I think that building such a community requires the teacher to be enthusiastic and excited about coming to school and engaging within each lesson.
One aspect of my CT's pedagogy that I have noticed her struggling with is her use of a rewards system. Throughout my participation and experience within her classroom she has always struggled (not excessively, but noticeably) with her classroom management, as they are a group of very, very social first graders. In an attempt to improve this classroom management she has tried many different things. One reward system that has been pretty effective is her "points for rows" system in which the students' desks are organized in rows, those rows who are collectively working hard and well-behaved earn tally marks and earn things from extra recess time to candy; those rows who are not acting accordingly will not get points or may lose points. This strategy seems to work some of the time but sometimes students will not listen eventhough they know it results in the whole row losing points. One newer reward system she has been trying out is what she refers to as "special buddies". This involved her drawing two mystery names from a mug; if those students are well-behaved throughout the lesson they are then rewarded with a prize of some sort. This seems to be more successful because the students do not know who the "special buddy" is and therefore most of them are trying to earn that prize. Being in her classroom I have seen how her instruction strategies and her use of different rewards systems play such a large role in her students' learning and the overall management of the classroom. Especially at such a young age (I would say K-2) I feel that these teaching factors are very important and really do make a difference in their attitudes towards their education and as a result affect their overall digestion of the curriculum and material.
Tompkins teacher factors directly relate to the student factors that she points out. One factor that contributes to student attention and motivation is whether or not the teacher clearly lays out her/his expectations for students learning; when teachers set high expectations for their students, and believe that they will succeed then "it is more likely they will" (236). Another factor that Tompkins points out as contributing to students' interest and level of engagement within the content of the curriculum, and actually learning that content, is the use of collaboration within the classroom (236). Collaboration can be so beneficial because working in pairs and small groups puts a completely new spin on learning. Students are not just sitting at desks doing individual work but they are actually striving towards goals with their classmates, many times with their friends.
The final factor Tompkins points out that I wanted to highlight, as I believe it plays a huge role in getting students excited about learning, is providing them with the ability to make their own choices in regards to their learning. When students are able to make their own choices they "develop more responsibility for their work and ownership of their accomplishments", this leads to them becoming more interested in what they are learning because, after all, it is something they chose to learn about! (237). Many times in my corresponding classroom students are given the opportunity to make choices in regards to their learning. Some specific examples I have observed are choosing their own books to read, choosing prompts that they can write about, and in mathematics sometimes creating their own problems, something that can be fun and additionally very beneficial to their mathematical comprehension.
Besides the eight components of comprehension I really liked that Tompkins pointed out some different teacher and student factors which contribute to the students' attitudes and overall attention and motivation. In regards to the teacher's role, some of the factors that were pointed out were the teacher's attitude, the community which they create within their classrooms, the instructional approaches they choose to use, and the system of rewards which they use (236-237). In my collaborating classroom I have been paying special attention to these factors in regards to the pedagogy of my CT. My CT, pretty much on a daily basis, is very positive and enthusiastic in regards to her teaching attitude. She shows her interest in the curriculum, therefore causing her students to become interested in what they are learning. This is an additional part of creating a good community within the classroom. I think that building such a community requires the teacher to be enthusiastic and excited about coming to school and engaging within each lesson.
One aspect of my CT's pedagogy that I have noticed her struggling with is her use of a rewards system. Throughout my participation and experience within her classroom she has always struggled (not excessively, but noticeably) with her classroom management, as they are a group of very, very social first graders. In an attempt to improve this classroom management she has tried many different things. One reward system that has been pretty effective is her "points for rows" system in which the students' desks are organized in rows, those rows who are collectively working hard and well-behaved earn tally marks and earn things from extra recess time to candy; those rows who are not acting accordingly will not get points or may lose points. This strategy seems to work some of the time but sometimes students will not listen eventhough they know it results in the whole row losing points. One newer reward system she has been trying out is what she refers to as "special buddies". This involved her drawing two mystery names from a mug; if those students are well-behaved throughout the lesson they are then rewarded with a prize of some sort. This seems to be more successful because the students do not know who the "special buddy" is and therefore most of them are trying to earn that prize. Being in her classroom I have seen how her instruction strategies and her use of different rewards systems play such a large role in her students' learning and the overall management of the classroom. Especially at such a young age (I would say K-2) I feel that these teaching factors are very important and really do make a difference in their attitudes towards their education and as a result affect their overall digestion of the curriculum and material.
Tompkins teacher factors directly relate to the student factors that she points out. One factor that contributes to student attention and motivation is whether or not the teacher clearly lays out her/his expectations for students learning; when teachers set high expectations for their students, and believe that they will succeed then "it is more likely they will" (236). Another factor that Tompkins points out as contributing to students' interest and level of engagement within the content of the curriculum, and actually learning that content, is the use of collaboration within the classroom (236). Collaboration can be so beneficial because working in pairs and small groups puts a completely new spin on learning. Students are not just sitting at desks doing individual work but they are actually striving towards goals with their classmates, many times with their friends.
The final factor Tompkins points out that I wanted to highlight, as I believe it plays a huge role in getting students excited about learning, is providing them with the ability to make their own choices in regards to their learning. When students are able to make their own choices they "develop more responsibility for their work and ownership of their accomplishments", this leads to them becoming more interested in what they are learning because, after all, it is something they chose to learn about! (237). Many times in my corresponding classroom students are given the opportunity to make choices in regards to their learning. Some specific examples I have observed are choosing their own books to read, choosing prompts that they can write about, and in mathematics sometimes creating their own problems, something that can be fun and additionally very beneficial to their mathematical comprehension.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
8 comprehension strategies
I found this weeks reading about the 8 comprehension strategies to be very beneficial. I never thought that there would be so much that went into understanding a text but after reading about the different components I feel like they are all very important.
Predicting: Predicting is something that I see a lot in the classroom. My CT frequently asks the students what they think a story is going to be about or what a character is going to do next. The kindergarten class always has a variety of ideas and thoughts. I think predicting is important when helping to understand a text in that it seems to get the students much more interested and engaged.
Connecting: Connecting is another strategy that is very important and one that I see often. I have learned that 5 and 6 year olds love to talk about themselves and their families so when a story is read and they can connect it to their own lives, they become very excited to share. There is of course the occasional story that has nothing to do with what was just read but nonetheless, I feel like the student is still engaged in the story. Tompkins also discusses the 3 types of connections: text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text. According to Tompkins, "in text-to-self connections, students link the ideas they are reading about to events in their own lives" (p. 228). These are the personal connections that I mostly see in the classroom. In text-to-world connections, students relate what they are reading to the outside world. In text-to-text connections the reader connects the text to a different text.
Visualizing: Visualizing is something that doesn't seem to be discussed much in my classroom. However, I think it's really important for all readers to imagine or picture what they are reading. It definitely helps to connect to the text in a positive way.
Questioning: Questioning is something that is done "out of curiosity" (p. 230). Students may ask questions to "clarify misunderstandings" as well as "reflect on the text" (p. 230). Questioning is also important for engaging and comprehension. Students in my classroom often ask questions about why a character did something or what might happen next. This also plays a part in the prediction aspect of comprehension.
Identifying the Big Ideas: While reading a text students need to know how to separate big ideas from minor details. Tompkins mentions graphic organizers and diagrams which I believe are extremely helpful when comprehending a text. My CT does this quite often and is also used as a prediction strategy.
Summarizing: According to Tompkins, students take the big ideas and focus on those aspects in order to make a "summary statement" (p. 231). Although the students in my class don't necessarily make summary statements, my CT makes sure they know what has happened in the text and what the main components of the story are.
Monitoring: I found the monitoring portion of this chapter really fascinating because while I have found that my students use these strategies; as readers, we never stop using them. How many times have we all read for a class and had to ask ourselves if we understand what the text was about or if we really needed to read the text in its entirety? When I think about it, monitoring is one of the most important aspects of comprehending a text.
Evaluating: Lastly, evaluating is an important strategy that I have seen in different ways in the classroom. Tompkins discusses reflecting in log entries and conferences. I feel like my CT uses group recitations for evaluations as well as things such as worksheets that have a connection to the text. Evaluating is another aspect that we all use in our reading strategies. This blog is a perfect example of evaluating the different chapters and articles we read to make sure we comprehend the texts.
Overall, I feel like these comprehension strategies are all helpful and beneficial no matter what the age. I have seen many of these strategies in the classroom as well as in my own personal reading expereinces.
Predicting: Predicting is something that I see a lot in the classroom. My CT frequently asks the students what they think a story is going to be about or what a character is going to do next. The kindergarten class always has a variety of ideas and thoughts. I think predicting is important when helping to understand a text in that it seems to get the students much more interested and engaged.
Connecting: Connecting is another strategy that is very important and one that I see often. I have learned that 5 and 6 year olds love to talk about themselves and their families so when a story is read and they can connect it to their own lives, they become very excited to share. There is of course the occasional story that has nothing to do with what was just read but nonetheless, I feel like the student is still engaged in the story. Tompkins also discusses the 3 types of connections: text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text. According to Tompkins, "in text-to-self connections, students link the ideas they are reading about to events in their own lives" (p. 228). These are the personal connections that I mostly see in the classroom. In text-to-world connections, students relate what they are reading to the outside world. In text-to-text connections the reader connects the text to a different text.
Visualizing: Visualizing is something that doesn't seem to be discussed much in my classroom. However, I think it's really important for all readers to imagine or picture what they are reading. It definitely helps to connect to the text in a positive way.
Questioning: Questioning is something that is done "out of curiosity" (p. 230). Students may ask questions to "clarify misunderstandings" as well as "reflect on the text" (p. 230). Questioning is also important for engaging and comprehension. Students in my classroom often ask questions about why a character did something or what might happen next. This also plays a part in the prediction aspect of comprehension.
Identifying the Big Ideas: While reading a text students need to know how to separate big ideas from minor details. Tompkins mentions graphic organizers and diagrams which I believe are extremely helpful when comprehending a text. My CT does this quite often and is also used as a prediction strategy.
Summarizing: According to Tompkins, students take the big ideas and focus on those aspects in order to make a "summary statement" (p. 231). Although the students in my class don't necessarily make summary statements, my CT makes sure they know what has happened in the text and what the main components of the story are.
Monitoring: I found the monitoring portion of this chapter really fascinating because while I have found that my students use these strategies; as readers, we never stop using them. How many times have we all read for a class and had to ask ourselves if we understand what the text was about or if we really needed to read the text in its entirety? When I think about it, monitoring is one of the most important aspects of comprehending a text.
Evaluating: Lastly, evaluating is an important strategy that I have seen in different ways in the classroom. Tompkins discusses reflecting in log entries and conferences. I feel like my CT uses group recitations for evaluations as well as things such as worksheets that have a connection to the text. Evaluating is another aspect that we all use in our reading strategies. This blog is a perfect example of evaluating the different chapters and articles we read to make sure we comprehend the texts.
Overall, I feel like these comprehension strategies are all helpful and beneficial no matter what the age. I have seen many of these strategies in the classroom as well as in my own personal reading expereinces.
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