Thursday, October 23, 2008

Chapter 2 The "So What?" of Reading Comprehension

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7 comments:

  1. lastNovember 3, 2008 at 11:29 AM

    I agree with the book when it talks about how students follow the directions we give but not put more effort than asked into the assignment. I see this happening all the time. The students put down the first thing that comes to them and do not put a lot of thought into their response. I really liked the quote, "I don't know if teachers can work any harder than they're already working, so we've got to find ways to make students carry more of the thinking load in our classrooms." (p.19) If we do this the students will get more out of our classes.

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  2. PBJNovember 4, 2008 at 8:57 AM

    I think because I am a better reader it is hard for me to understand how sometimes students just don't "get it"! On page 16 Jo Anna's inferences are obvious - at least to a good reader. When I am working with different groups of students I have to sometimes remember to slow down my thought process so I can share it with students. I don't want to get to far ahead with my thoughts, but want to model good thinking and good instruction.
    I also like the idea of "holding your thinking". My question is....Are we teaching enough strategies?

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  3. AnonymousNovember 6, 2008 at 10:19 AM

    This chapter was perfect for me because it was talking about things that I am currently doing. We are doing Lit Circles right now and I have the kids write me double-entry journals. This is similar to the double-entry diaries, but not exact. While I was grading these journals I was thinking to myself that the kids are writing about things that are not important and really have no significance to the story. I started to think about the "so what" story. That might have to be my next mini-lesson. Personally, I would like to do more with teaching strategies. I agree with Beth that we might not be doing enough of that.

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  4. CottrellNovember 9, 2008 at 2:16 PM

    What I really like about this chapter is the 4 teaching points at the end of the chapter. I think the language would be very helpful to use with students, even to make anchor charts in the classroom. I think the question "Why am I doing this?" is a really important one, when giving assignments. If we can relate it directly back to our standards & benchmarks, it is a worthwhile thing to spend class time on. Hey 'Stoney,' next time we meet, let's talk about teaching strategies :)

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  5. quasiusNovember 10, 2008 at 1:06 PM

    I really liked this chapter on asking the question "so what?" I think we are so caught up in having the students try to make connections with the text when they truly don't know what a meaningful or significant connection is. I am not sure that the majority of our students know how to think beyond the concrete connection of things like "the book has a dog in it and I also have a dog at home." Asking why that is important is a good step in the right direction for having the students think deeper. Another point in chapter two that I thought was important, was having the students reread and returing to the text to construct meaning. I see many of my students muddling through the text in order to answer questions and not to really gather meaning. I know that I need to do more of having the students go back into the text to reread for meaning. I don't think that I take enough time to work with them in finding the meaning of why we are reading a certain text, it is usually to help them complete an assignment.

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  6. Miss SommersNovember 10, 2008 at 4:58 PM

    I have never heard of a double-entry diary before. I really like it! This would be great for my project next semester so the students can get more into the "meat" of the research and not just the superficial easy information. If the students can make some kind of connection, my hope is that they will remember the concept, story, reason behind what we are trying to teach them. I'm excited to try this!

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  7. pfaffNovember 12, 2008 at 6:05 AM

    I tried the "so-what" verbally in class after reading a difficult paragraph in science. We were reading about density, and I noticed many fogged expressions on the student's faces. So, when I asked them "so-what" I got a bit more response from them. In one hour, it actually started a debate over the issue. I even saw students re-reading the passage so they could enter the discussion.

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