Chapter 8

At the beginning Beers talks about the fact that simply having students answer questions about a text is not a thorough way of making sure students comprehend what they read. She goes on to show ways to help students formulate meanings and ideas from the texts they read. To take it a step farther than just understanding the meanings of the words. I can see how each strategy she describes could open up further critical thought, but I definitely prefer some strategies over others. I think strategies like Somebody Wanted But So are only good for shorter stories are very well structured plot wise. Scales could be used in almost all comprehension settings. I agree that students respond better to more opinion-based strategies. I am definitely not a fan of retelling. That was mostly what we did in school. Our teachers would pass out a worksheet with guide questions and we would   retell the story following the guide questions. In school I remember thinking how boring it was. I like text reformation, because it can work both ways. Like the mom and the daughter example, the mom can function as the teacher and reform a text to say it a different way so the student understands it better, or the student can come up with a story that relates to the text and tells it in a different way so it becomes more familiar and relatable to the student. I remember doing sketch to stretch in a lot of my classes in school as well. We also do it in our class with Dr. Pytash. Its not my favorite simply because i'm not an artist, but I can see how it works well and helps students take meanings from texts.

Chapter 7

I can't wait to use the "Say Something" model in my classroom. In high school I loved independent reading in class because our teacher let us discuss our reading with a partner and then present our ideas and comments. It really helped us understand and interpret our novels. I totally love the music reference as well. Anytime anyone relates something to music it makes it so much easier to understand because pretty much everyone listens to some sort of music. Beers has mentioned reading aloud and talking through a text in previous chapters. I still think its a very good idea. Rereading is awesome. I am definitely going to have my students do some rereading when I start teaching. Thinking aloud is good. But I also think it probably works better in small groups or in helping students when they can just jot notes to themselves and we can think aloud as a class. The examination from all this would come straight from the points and highlights the students bring to attention.

Chapter 5

I was in another class today and we learned about structural and lexical ambiguity in sentences. Some of the ambiguities my professor attempted to point out went completely over my head. I just couldn't see the double meanings in the sentence. As I was reading this chapter I was thinking, what if my students see something I don't? How do I teach them to see something I can't even see myself. The opposite applies as well. How can I be that teacher trying to teach students to think outside of the box and see things they wouldn't normally see. To me that is what inferring is all about. I like what she says, "readers infer what authors imply." I think I am going to end up keeping this text book simply because I love all the ideas she has for us and activities she suggests.

Chapter 6

The Mr. Davidson discussion really helped me visualize what an anticipation guide is. I think that is a great way to introduce a new text. I also like all the pointers. My favorite and the one I think is the most important is making connections between what you already know, in case the work you are about to read is something you are completely unfamiliar with.
I'm not sure I like the idea of the K-W-L chart so much. I think it might confuse students mainly because most of books we read are poems and novels and they are almost always fiction. I would rather have a discussion about the issues in the book, then use a K-W-L chart. I feel like I would easily lose the students' interest.
I do love the idea of probable passage. I think its an A+ idea for getting the students thinking about the work they are about to read. I forget how important it is to model the strategy before you send the kids off to do it. I'm glad she keeps reminding us of that.

Chapter 4

I like that she gave us the examples of direct instruction vs. scripted instruction. I hope in the future I won't be as scripted as the sidebar from the reading mastery book was. Students probably don't get much out of scripted instruction because the teacher wouldn't know how to answer any of the students questions. I found it helpful to differentiate between strategy and skill. The bike riding analogy was a good analogy to reading comprehension.
The Kate story was interesting to see how she used her own past experiences as a student, even though she hated them, in her new classroom. Then after she tried a new way of teaching, her students responded better and she had a more productive classroom discussion. I also like that you can have direct instruction, but at the same time you can have breakout sessions, group work, and individual work to go along with your lessons.

Chapter 3

I love the charts in this chapter. They make perfect sense and I can use them in my classroom to help assess reading levels. I also found it interesting to read about the different cases of dependent readers. Mike, as a freshmen in high school was lacking fundamental reading skills and needed help boosting his confidence and vocabulary. For Sharamee it was decoding the meaning of the text she was reading and hearing the words in her head. Amy could understand what a text meant but didn't know how to make a text interesting, or find a book that interested her. I like that not only does the author give us examples of bad reading skills, she also gives us examples of what good readers do, then adds to it by giving us a list of how good teachers help students learn to be better readers.

Chapter 2

I thought the chapter was interesting. It is a great idea to keep notes on the conversations you hear in class. It helps to know the different types of readers. I can gauge where a student falls by the kind of question they ask about the reading assignments. I like the distinction between dependent and independent readers, and what I can do to help readers be more independent. I like the suggestions she had for the triangle of confidence. I know I need my readers to be excited and interested in the reading if I want to have a lively and productive class discussion.

Jen