I really enjoyed chapter 7 of the Tompkins book because I think comprehension is such an important part of literacy. I think if comprehension is going to be taught effectively, then all eight strategies should be used because together, I think they do a great job of satisfying students’ different learning styles. One of the examples from the book was about prediction and how prediction is a tool that is frequently used in reading. Prediction is introduced when kids are very young, and they might not even see how it can be used as a comprehension tool, but it can help the students focus their reading and give them a purpose as they read to find out if their predictions were correct. This is a great strategy to start out with when teaching comprehension because it is something students are already familiar with. The other strategies are also strategies students have used before, but will be bale to apply to comprehension. I think this is great because the students will be able to learn comprehension through skills they already possesses and it will help them to refine their skills. Tompkins develops the idea that comprehension is a process. It's not just a skill or a task that a student learns once and masters, but a process. As students use more and more strategies and techniques to help guide their comprehension, they will continue to build on the base they have and comprehension will be something that comes naturally to them.
This chapter really made me think about my own personal school experiences because comprehension was something I really struggled with. I was a very fast reader in elementary school, but I remember I would get to the end of a page, or a chapter and have very vague ideas of what it was about. I think I focused too much on reading the words correctly and moving through them, that I lost focus of how the words all worked together to create meaning. I can’t remember specific comprehension strategies my teachers used, but I’m sure there were strategies used. I wonder what it was about the strategies my teachers used to help teach comprehension that didn’t help me.
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I agree that comprehension is a process, and the role of the teacher is important in creating this process possible to students. Unfortunately, I was able to develop this process later in high school, so I struggled a lot in high school. Similar to your experience in elementary, I was also a fast reader. But I was never able to build comprehension strategies and techniques as a young student.
ReplyDeleteI think our experience with comprehension as students enables us to understand and appreciate the importance of comprehension even more.