In reference to Weaver,
I feel that this student falls under two of the “Reader Characteristics” on
pages 244 and 246: “Reader doesn’t seem to know that reading should make sense,”
and “Reader doesn’t seem to use prior knowledge and context to predict what’s
coming next. Reader may not know that this is an important reading strategy
that makes even word identification easier”. Weaver offers “possible teaching
strategies” for each of the reader characteristics provided. A few that I
really think would be beneficial for my students are, 1) while previewing a
book, discuss what you think the story will be about, 2) reading books to the
class, followed by a discussion, 3) sustained reading, and 4) relevant mini-lessons
pinpointing the student’s area of weakness. Aside from what the book suggest,
using context clues in the text is coming to mind. Since Marcus is substituting
words with familiar looking and/or sounding words, it appears that he is simply
‘guessing’ when he comes to an unfamiliar word. I would suggest, once he makes
a miscue of this sort, to stop Marcus. Allow Marcus to explain what is
happening in the text in general. Once he confirms that he understands the
meaning of the text, ask him to reread the sentence in which he miscued. Ask
him if the substituted word makes sense. If it does not make logical sense, discuss
with Marcus why and continue with what word he could have substituted that
would help make sense. In previous chapters, we have discussed that miscues
that are semantically acceptable, are not to cause much concern. As a teacher,
my goal would be to help Marcus recognize when he makes a semantics miscue and
how to make meaning (even if it’s not the original word). In the end, we simply
want our students to make sense of what they are reading, even if they miscue occasionally.
I really like your suggestion for Marcus to stop and explain what is happening with his reading or comprehension. That seems like a very logical process and one that should yield great results as long as the child is patient with you! I also think it's a good strategy because it models metacognition; it gets Marcus really thinking about why he's doing what he's doing (or not doing) while reading, which is a great skill for readers of any level to engage in.
ReplyDeleteI also found Weaver's text to be helpful in determining strategies to help Marcus. One that we both mentioned was reading books to the class and discussing them. I find read alouds to be such a great time for modeling proficient reading strategies. I also like your idea of working with Marcus on using context clues to recognize works. I found the following line from your blog post to be particularly powerful. "As a teacher, my goal would be to help Marcus recognize when he makes a semantics miscue and how to make meaning (even if it’s not the original word." After everything we have covered so far this semester, I now strongly believe that it does not matter if students identify every single word correctly as long as they are substituting words that make sense semantically. I think your suggestions would be very helpful in improving Marcus' ability to read words and more importantly, his ability to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteKatie, I like the four different suggestions your offered to help Marcus. I also thought it would be good to encourage different discussion before the text is read, offering help to Marcus to think about it before hand and listen to what his classmates have to say about the text. One thing I didn't mention in my reflection that I think you made a good point about was stopping immediately after Marcus makes the miscue and asking him what he thinks the text is saying. This would be a great tool because it would allow the teacher to hear what Marcus is comprehending while also seeing if after he discusses the meaning, when he re-reads the sentence, if he can fix that miscue or not. I think your suggestions are great and would all be great tools to help Marcus comprehend better and therefore hopefully miscue less.
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI would agree with what you said about stopping Marcus when he makes a miscue and ask him what is going on. He might realize during this discussion that he substituted incorrectly and you can discuss with him why. He can become more aware of what types of mistakes he is making to work through them. The suggestions you made for working with Marcus are great ideas and would gain success. The "stop and think" type of method is a great way to make students active in their reading and also allows you time to discuss comprehension questions along the way. This can model for the student that you should be checking up on yourself throughout something you are reading in order to make sure you are gaining the meaning from the text.