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.