Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies is a part of both currently approved reading series in California and will likely be a part of whatever new program is adopted. I speak for myself, an English major, when I say that I initially found the teaching of strategies to be silly. I mean, I just read stuff and I understand it. No one taught me how to use strategies and I turned out okay.
However, what I think we forget is that as adults we forget that we’ve already developed our own strategies and internalized them or we haven’t and we try to avoid those activities which we haven’t developed strategies for. Many of our students will develop their own strategies over time. However, working with large populations of English Language Learners and students who do not have much support at home in learning to read, having strategies to help comprehend is particularly important.
And there is research to support the teaching of strategies.
See Part Two: Comprehension Strategies, Where Are We Going Wrong?
The interesting question isn’t “how” to teach comprehension (and those 5 pillars of reading are maybe a good starting point – but certainly not the last word on the topic). The interesting question about comprehension is whose interpretation of a text is to be privileged? The author’s? The student’s? The teacher’s? The test writer’s? Comprehension is a very big word. It’s my favorite thing to think about, in fact.
Looking forward to anything else you might have to say about it.
Hi Doug,
Interesting question. At the elementary level, many teachers never get to the level of interpretation because they’re only asking simple recall questions. Having a prescribed curriculum can sometimes help but it can sometimes hurt if teachers let their own ability to ask questions atrophy and assume that the book’s questions are the most interesting/higher level ones.
For my money, I would accept any interpretation but the important part is how a student supports their interpretation with evidence from the text/pictures. We have to remember to ask for that evidence.
I couldn’t agree more with your post, Mathew. I was certainly guilty of taking reading strategies and comprehension skills for granted.