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is read before we actively engage our students, we have lost some of our students and their comprehension of the text is obsolete.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.