The inferences section in Ch. 6 stuck out to me. What made an impact on you in these chapters?
I was able to take away a lot from chapter 5, “Struggling Through a Text.” As a special education teacher, I work with reluctant readers and I am always trying to adjust my approach to guide my students towards independence when reading. I can relate to when Beers reflects on giving George the answers to what the text means, through her eyes, due to frustration and desperation. I can admit that I sometimes prompt my students towards the meaning I want them to get from a text. Through reading this chapter, I have a new appreciation for the idea of teaching kids to struggle through a text. When kids know how to struggle through a text, they learn how to be independent readers and gather skills needed to improve their reading.
How do you respond to students “who don’t get it”? After this reading how will that shift?
When students say “I don’t get it” I initially respond by quickly reading their emotions during this frustrating time. I work with students who have emotional and behavioral needs where frustrating situations can require extra support to cope with. If students are able to move forward without needing time away from the reading task, I will try to make a plan with them to look closer at the text or look at it in a different way to foster comprehension. Often, I will model what I might do to engage with the text in a way that helps me understand. After this reading, I want to adjust my response to allow students to struggle through the text more than I normally would (while still receiving my support). Although this will need to be strategically executed according to student readiness level, it will guide them to be more successful independent readers.
Comprehension, understanding, and change is the goal of any reading. What will you do differently in your teaching after reading this section?
I work with students that struggle to make inferences based on a text. I noticed that when assessments ask my students to make an inference based on what they read, they almost always provide an incorrect answer. I plan to implement the ideas shared in Figure 6.1 that provide specific ways to teach students how to make inferences based on the different types of inferences. For example, if a student needs to make an inference based on transition words, I need to teach them to understand categories of signal words and what they mean. This will be so helpful to use as a reference!