-The inferences section in Ch. 6 stuck out to me. What made an impact on you in these chapters?
I really started to see the worth of this book as I progressed through chapter 3 and beyond. My thinking began to change and I could instantly reflect on how many ways I have NOT helped a student when they didn’t understand what they were struggling to read. I never thought about how not getting “it” really meant a lot of things were probably not understood. I am aware that meaning is not always in the text but have often taken it for granted that my students are not. As Kylene Beers states again and again, “Comprehension is not a “thing” to get.” That stuck out to me.
I also like how she described meaning as being created in the interactions one has with a text and how hard it would be to interact if you could not relate; if you have not experienced similar situations, places or thoughts, how could you understand those you’re reading about.
And of course, how Beers includes how all readers have common points of confusion and given the right text, we can all be struggling readers. This is so important for all students to see. I will definitely use the note taking approach and model this for my students with upcoming read alouds. I need to show my students “how to struggle successfully”.
-How do you respond to students “who don’t get it”? After this reading how will that shift?
I have been guilty as well of having a student reread, take a closer look or slow down their reading when they “don’t get it”. I never looked at it as my students not being able to verbalize their question; that it was not a specific thing in the text that they didn’t get.
Just as we often have to infer when reading a text for deeper meaning or just a general understanding, we also should be doing the same when our students tell us that they don’t understand. I need to be more open and infer what my students don’t get by having conversations about what is not only seen but unseen. I need to be more consistent with my read alouds to give these students more experiences so they can be more successful with learning how these stories work.
I will continue to make available more windows and sliding glass doors into our leveled book selections in our classroom library so my students can explore these diverse books.
I need to do a better job at incorporating all of these things so that my students can create meaning and not just find it.
-Comprehension, understanding, and change is the goal of any reading. What will you do differently in your teaching after reading this section?
Successful readers need experience to infer successfully as mentioned above and many times in this book. As Beers suggests, I need to help them by offering and introducing them to more diverse worlds where they can explore.
I also need to give my readers more time to think about a story that I’ve introduced. I need to give them time to pull all they already know from their background knowledge to set the stage for their reading success.