Quote: "...Strategic readers are more likely to read in the future....Struggling readers, in contrast, are frustrated; they don't understand what they're reading, don't like to read, and aren't likely to read in the future."
Comment: Reading comprehension is a topic that really interests me. While I wouldn't classify myself as a "struggling" reader, comprehension has never been my forte. I worry about students like me. Students who do the reading, understand the plot, but get a totally different message from the reading. I loved the process the teacher used in the first few pages of the reading. She addressed so many questions from the reading that weren't explicitly answered in the text, rather students had to infer based on what WAS in the text. I wish that teachers had done that more often with my classes. I think it's vital for kids to learn what types of questions to ask.
Questions: How do you help those students who get a completely different meaning from a piece of text?
That is a very good question, Esther. I think that as a teacher we need to constantly be asking ourselves questions like that to make sure we are aware of all our students and their struggles, because you are right, not all people get the same things out of stories. I think the main thing is to just be open as the teacher. When a student makes a comment or answers a question in a way that was not expected, don't shut them down and say they are wrong because they don't agree with you but rather ask them questions about why they think that way and what supports their opinion. That way you can tell if they comprehended the reading, even if it was in a different way that you did. They teacher is not always right and there is not always only one answer. We definitely need to get off our high horses as teachers and remember that kids have brains too and we can learn things from them :)
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