Chapter 9: Vocabulary: Finding Out What Words Mean

When I began to read this chapter, I laughed to myself several times because I found it to be quite relatable. Vocabulary lessons were given in a way for the students to memorize them for a test and forget them as soon as the test concluded. Beers introduces us to more effective ways to teach vocabulary. These lessons are proven effective because it helps students actually learn words, ways to use them and most importantly remember them. As a teacher, it takes more than supplying a dictionary to your students for them to actually acquire the knowledge we sent out for them to learn. By engaging our students in vocabulary activities we are enabling them to construct their own meaning of words and consequently they have a greater chance of remembering and utilizing the words. 

Chapter 8: After-Reading Strategies

For most teachers, it is common to assess students' comprehension after reading a text. In this chapter, Beers emphasizes the importance of after-reading strategies. These strategies can be used to enrich students' understanding, while clarifying all misunderstandings. As a teacher this would be a good way to help students who struggle to construct meaning and make sense of what was read. The activity that most stood out to me in this chapter was the "retellings." Retellings is way to have the students actually come up with a summary of a text, but it has them organize the plot, characters, themes and details of the story. For dependent readers, this activity can be vital for their comprehension and interpretation. The activities and tools that Beers includes in the chapter are all quite interesting. They are active ways of getting students engaged in a text and it also sparks interest and conversation. These strategies are ways to steer away from traditional teaching and allow students a chance to do something different and unexpected. 

Chapter 7: During - Reading Strategies

I found this chapter to be quite intriguing. As a reader, I find myself re-reading texts, taking notes and doing anything possible to ensure I am comprehending the text, in which I am reading. While reading this chapter, I was enlightened to the fact that I had been utilizing reading strategies all along. I also was enlightened to know that dependent readers lack these skills. I can recall being in middle and high school and the teacher would assign independent reading in class. Most of the time it would be until a bulk of the text is read before we would even begin to discuss the happenings of the book. For dependent readers, this is a major problem. If we as teachers wait until a text is read before we actively engage our students, we have lost some of our students and their comprehension of the text is obsolete.

Beers tells us that it is vital to talk during texts to make the invisible processes of comprehension visible. She goes over three primary during-reading strategies. The first strategy is say something, the second strategy is rereading and the third is think-aloud. Out of these three strategies, I really like the first one. I do not know how many times I was independently reading a text, but my mind was just not connected to what I was reading. For this first strategy, instead of students reading independently, they are placed into small groups where they will take turn reading aloud. Periodically, while they are reading, they will "say something." This is a way for students to make comments, predict and ask questions. Vygotsky would agree that is an effective strategy for students because they are constucted their own meaning through social interaction. 

Chapter 5: Learning to Make an Inference

From a teacher's standpoint there were several things that stuck out to me in this chapter. At the beginning of Chapter 5, Beers included a vignette illustrating an experience she had early in her career with a student. She asked her student to a question based on an inference and quickly realized she had never taught her students how to draw inferences. Beers states, "You can't teach someone how to make an inference. It's inferential. It's just something you can or can't do." I honestly do not agree with this statement at all. Like everything we have learned up to this point, by giving our students explicit instruction we enable them to learn in capacities that they once were not able to. Readers who struggle to comprehend text, rely primarily on trying to decode it and if the literal meaning is not there, it is hard for them to find meaning. This is where making inferences comes into play. As a teacher we must directly model how we want our students to make inferences. As we read along, I can highlight pronouns and other clues that give our story meaning and substance.

Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning (Pre-Reading Strategies)

The topic of this chapter is not really something that I have ever thought about. There have been times that I find myself wondering about a text before I read it, but I have never viewed that as being a strategy. Beers stressed in this chapter that it is important for teachers to encourage their students to anticipate a text. Involvement begins at the first mention of a text, as an independent reader you should already be formulating meaning according to the title, genre, author, headings, etc.

In the text, Beers gave us two different pre-reading strategies. The first strategy was the anticipation guide. I really thought this was a good way to activate prior knowledge and able to students to start thinking about the major themes of the book. They can also try to take side according to how they feel prior to reading the book and contrast those feelings with how they feel at the end of the book. The second strategy was the tea party. This strategy is used by writing phrases on note cards and handing them out to students. The students then go around the room sharing their phrases and trying to come up with ways they may be related. This strategy is a great way to get students engaged and ultimately motivate them to find out the true meaning of the phrases.

Chapter 4: Explicit Instruction in Comprehension

Finally!!! The first three chapters have been really informative in explaining and setting the stage for displaying students and their inabilities. These chapters have also begin to define our role as a teacher and after reading Chapter 3 our role was beginning to become more and more complex. Finally, Beers has began to build off of the foundation she has set and is now explaining how we can teach students these numerous strategies in order to maximize learning and comprehension. The most important principle in this chapter is to refrain from explaining what a text means to a struggling student; instead we should use instructional strategies that will help guide them from being a dependent reader to an independent reader.

The instructional strategies Beers listed goes beyond simply telling a student to "visualize the text" or predict what will happen next. One of the best was to apply these strategies in way students will understand is to directly model. Show your students what you would do as an expert reader. Give them your strategies and in turn they will be able to better implement them. Beers also includes a step by step process we can use to apply almost all strategies:

Step1: Decide what specific strategy you want to model and what text to use

Step 2: Tell your students exactly what strategy you'll be practicing will reading the passage.

Step 3: Read the passage to students while modeling the strategy

Step 4: Give your students several chances to practice the strategy with shorter texts, while you listen and coach them.

Step 5: Continue to model the strategy with different genres throughout the year.

Step 6: Give students opportunities to try the strategy without your coaching support.

Beers' step by step process that she provided us reflects the idea of this chapter. Although, instruction is crucial to a lesson plan, instruction alone is not enough. We as teachers need to model exactly what we expect of our students in order for all of our students to succeed.

Chapter 3: Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs

Chapter 3, in my opinion, was a display of one of the biggest tasks I will have when I become a teacher. Beers went in depth on the different reasons a child may have difficulty/inability to read.  After examining the figures provided in the text, it is evident that there is no one reason that students struggle to read, in fact there are a tremendous amount of reasons.

To be honest, I found this chapter to be alarming. I have never played the role of a teacher, so a lot of these facts have gone unnoticed while I was a student. Beers did an amazing job when writing this chapter, the student profiles that she included gave insight and provided examples of a student who was facing specific reading challenges. I found Sharamee's struggle to be the most relatable for students in the secondary school setting. Many students care more about being able to decode words easily, that they lack comprehending exactly what they are reading.

Beers' main idea of this chapter was to give us future teachers stories that we can relate to when we start working with students. Once we are able to identify specific reading problems/struggles, we will be able to accurrately address them.

Chapter 2: Creating Independent Readers

I found this chapter to be extremely insightful, as I also found myself having numerous "ah ha moments". The various anecdotes that the author included really enhanced my understanging of the underlying principle of the chapter, Creating Independent Readers.

"Over the years, continued observation of students' reading behaviors and careful listening of their comments and conversations about this complicated act have helped me revise my understanding of how we assist students in becoming lifelong, independent readers. That knowledge has been refined most dramatically by my awareness that simply improving the cognitive aspects of reading (comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, and word recognition) does not ensure that the affective aspects of reading (motivation, enjoyment, engagement) will automatically improve." This quote from the chapter is what stuck with me the most. I thought back to my experience in grade school and I have to admit, I mostly remember focusing on the cognitive aspects of reading and rarely felt engaged with the text.

I certainly do believe that students need to be motivated to read instead of it being just another part of the lesson play. Through social interaction, such as, small group activities, projects and classroom discussions a readers motivation and enjoyment of a text can tremendously be increased. Lastly, as a result of motivation and enjoyment being increased, a student's comprehension will also increase.