Chapter 7

“You Mean You Make It Make Sense?”

Chapter 7 offered a lot of different strategies teachers can use to help students make sense of a text. At the beginning of the chapter, she gave a really good example of a student who didn’t know how you construct meaning from a text. The boy didn’t realize that there are different strategies you can use to help you understand a text. I think it’s important for teachers to remember that students who aren’t good readers don’t know what good readers do to help them make sense of a text. Beers talked about a partner strategy called Say Something. When students use Say Something, the students make comments about the text as they are reading it. I’ve never heard of this strategy before and I thought it was an interesting way to get students actively engaged in reading. I think it can be really useful too because it can help a student clarify what is happening in the text before the student continues on reading. I also thought the double-entry journals and the post-it notes were really neat ideas. I really liked the double entry journals because it’s a unique way for students to keep notes on the text and their reactions. I loved the idea of the post-it notes. I think that’s a great way for students mark passages and keep track of comments and questions within the book. I thought this chapter offered a lot of fun and useful strategies teachers can use within their classroom.