Chapter 6

Chapter 6 talks about getting students to become active readers. One of the ways to do that is to get to get students to anticipate what will happen in a story. I really like the example of the Anticipation Guide for The Diary of Anne Frank. I think the questions the teacher asked really got students to think about how they would respond to these difficult questions. I think that was a creative way to get students to think about what happens in the play and how the characters would answer those questions. I also liked the K-W-L strategy to help students better understand a nonfiction story. I think this approach would be very useful for students because nonfiction stories often require background knowledge and K-W-L helps students organize their knowledge. I also thought the Probable Passage was really interesting. I think it’s a good idea to try to get students thinking about what they read. It’s very interesting to me because I’ve never heard or seen the Probable Passage used before. I think it would be a different and creative way of getting students to think about what they’re going to read. I’ve also never heard of the Tea Party strategy. It’s a neat way to play with the text of a story in order to get students involved. I think all of the strategies mentioned in the book are fun and different ways to get students active in reading.

Chapter 4

“How do I know unless I already know?”

I thought chapter 4 was really interesting because it talked a lot about comprehension and the actual process of teaching comprehension. Beers’ example of Al’s confusion over identifying the main ideas and his lack of comprehension helped me to understand just how difficult teaching comprehension can be. Even though she had tried to explain the assignment to Al, he just didn’t understand what she was telling him. She was telling him what to do; instead, she later said what she needed to do was show him.

In the first transcript, I really liked how Beers made a point to ask Kate what her students learned that would help them with comprehension in other stories. A lot of things build on comprehension and I think it’s really important for students to have a firm grasp on comprehension. I liked how transcript three and four showed examples of teaching comprehension strategies explicitly. I’ve never had a teacher use comprehensive strategies like that and I was a little confused at first as to how that would work. It made much more sense after reading about them used in a classroom.

Chapter 3

In Chapter 3, Beers talked a lot about what it means when a teacher says “This kid can’t read.” I really like how she used specific examples of students to show what they could and couldn’t do while they were reading. The examples made it easier for me to understand what exactly each student was struggling with. I also liked that she followed right after that with what good readers do. I think it’s a really good idea to stop and look at what a good reader is doing compared to someone who is struggling with reading. I think one of the most important points in this chapter is that different students need different types of instruction from teachers in order to learn. I think that shows just how important the teacher is in understanding his or her student and what the best approach is in order for the student to learn.

Chapter 2

The main idea that stood out to me from Chapter 2 is Kylene Beers' struggle with George. He just couldn't "get it" when she tried to help him in reading. There have been many times in my life when I just couldn’t get something in school, but until now, I’ve never stopped to think about what it is that I didn’t understand. Now that I’ve actually thought about it, many different questions crossed my mind. George wasn’t able to say what he didn’t get when he was reading and I think that’s something very important for teachers to remember. The interact between George and Beers helped me to understand just how important it is for a teacher to recognize what exactly the student is struggling with even if they can’t say it themselves. I also liked how Beers talked about the stereotype of a struggling reader and the difference between a dependent reader and an independent reader. I think it’s really important that she drew attention to students who don’t fit the stereotype, but still are struggling readers. I also really liked that she pointed out that anyone can be a struggling reader if given the right text.