I am continuing to read the book, Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier. This week, I will be reviewing chapters 6, 7, and 8. Chapter six covered interactive read aloud. As teachers, sometimes we have to just let our students talk. The book states, "Interactive read aloud time is the perfect setting for having students actively involved in talking and thinking about texts." (Johnson and Keier) Reading is a social time and I love that books allow students to recall and make connections to their own lives from reading. This is a very important time for students to have social interactions.
Chapter 7 covered how to teach reading. My first year of teaching, I remember thinking, "how in the world do I even begin to teach reading?" This chapter goes over where to begin. First, you have to know where your students are academically. Use the tools that your school provides you with to find this out. This can include letter assessments, DRA, high frequency word assessments, etc. Then, begin working on key strategies. This book states that key strategies include: directionality, thinking strategies, letter identification and phonics, phonemic awareness, knowing the difference between words and letters, self monitoring, and early fluency. (Johnson and Keier) These really are the beginning steps for teaching a child to read. I would also say finding out their interests. Find books on topics that they are interested in.
Chapter 8 covered comprehension. This chapter focuses a lot on questioning. It suggests having questions ready before, during, and after a lesson to keep students engaged and thinking. It also talks about visualizing. Visualizing as you are reading, allows one to comprehend things. The book states, "When you visualize, or make visual images as you read, you usually are making that image based on some prior knowledge you have with that topic, or you are inferring based on some past experience." (Johnson and Keier)
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 provide great insight for teaching reading and guiding instructional strategies!
-Kristen Cochran
I think I need to read this book next! As a retired teacher, I have not taught in 5 years. It is so easy to look at reading as a big complex entity and become overwhelmed with the many facets of teaching reading and really forget where to begin teaching students to read. Chapter 7, "How to teach reading," would be a good reminder of those strategies.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen. This text provides so many great strategies we can use to help our struggling readers! In chapter 6 about interactive read alouds, I enjoy using a variety of text. Have you heard of the book Interactive Read Alouds by Linda Hoyt? I use this book to teach reading strategies with my students and it provides many different types of texts that can be used to teach the strategies.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteYou did a solid job summarizing the strategies the authors shared for interactive reading, how to teach reading in a holistic, balanced approach using a variety of strategies, and how to build students' comprehension. Which strategies have you or will you apply with your students?
Thanks,
Dawn and Melissa