Teachers (and Parents): What reading comprehension strategies have you found effective?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
True, but there are many public schools where there are only a few children with any difficulty and they go to see a specialist. No reason why in 4th grade the majority of kids in public should be reading comic books just to get hooked on reading while private schools are busy actually learning content and understanding relationships. Reading is thinking and learning. It's a form of communication. You wouldn't have children watch just any TV show or listen to any conversation just to get hooked on talking. You'd want the communication to be meaningful.

Wow, I do teach 4th grade students in 2 public schools, and have never seen teachers give kids comic books to get them hooked on reading. They read grade appropriate books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why parents leave for private schools. These are my observations and those of my teacher friends in similar schools in our district. I think DCUM readers have trouble understand what the problem is in schools. If you don't like the expectations of the school(s) you child(ren) attend, go elsewhere. I did even though it is a financial stretch for me. My child got all As in her public ES. I couldn't really understand why since she never really worked that hard to deserve them. I switched her to a private MS and now she understands what it takes to earn an A. I had to pay money for her to learn this though.

I just read this article and it is very timely. https://www.moultrienews.com/opinion/teacher-to-parent---a-child-must-be-a/article_d6f11c06-698a-11e8-b017-53c8296979a0.html

[Anonymous]

If many of your reluctant readers are boys, have you tried stocking the room with Star Wars and Minecraft fiction books?

I also really hate to suggest this, but the Captain Underpants series is another great way to entice reluctant boys to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If many of your reluctant readers are boys, have you tried stocking the room with Star Wars and Minecraft fiction books?

I also really hate to suggest this, but the Captain Underpants series is another great way to entice reluctant boys to read.

I really think it's all about peer pressure. If the entire class is reading a certain book, the reluctant readers will eventually find the book interesting. Especially if one day a week is also choice reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If many of your reluctant readers are boys, have you tried stocking the room with Star Wars and Minecraft fiction books?

I also really hate to suggest this, but the Captain Underpants series is another great way to entice reluctant boys to read.

I really think it's all about peer pressure. If the entire class is reading a certain book, the reluctant readers will eventually find the book interesting. Especially if one day a week is also choice reading.

Have you ever spent time in a classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If many of your reluctant readers are boys, have you tried stocking the room with Star Wars and Minecraft fiction books?

I also really hate to suggest this, but the Captain Underpants series is another great way to entice reluctant boys to read.

I really think it's all about peer pressure. If the entire class is reading a certain book, the reluctant readers will eventually find the book interesting. Especially if one day a week is also choice reading.

Have you ever spent time in a classroom?

Do you think they will learn more from having them read and actually be responsible for understanding something they've read or just reading on their own and reading at a low level? Are you going to let them pick all their high school books too? Give some independent reading and the rest can be choices from several books the teacher picks. Our school does a rating system and you typically get your first or second choice for the book club. I've never heard a complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
True, but there are many public schools where there are only a few children with any difficulty and they go to see a specialist. No reason why in 4th grade the majority of kids in public should be reading comic books just to get hooked on reading while private schools are busy actually learning content and understanding relationships. Reading is thinking and learning. It's a form of communication. You wouldn't have children watch just any TV show or listen to any conversation just to get hooked on talking. You'd want the communication to be meaningful.

Wow, I do teach 4th grade students in 2 public schools, and have never seen teachers give kids comic books to get them hooked on reading. They read grade appropriate books.

+1 My son is in a standard middle class elementary school, heading into 4th grade. They are allowed to pick whatever they want out of the library for silent reading time, and certainly there are graphic novels (particularly Dog Man, etc.) being read during that time. But the actual books the vasy majority of students read in class or assigned for homework are grade-level, content rich novels. I'd love to know where these schools are that are having 4th graders read comic books. My guess is they don't actually exist and people are making things up to suit their agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
True, but there are many public schools where there are only a few children with any difficulty and they go to see a specialist. No reason why in 4th grade the majority of kids in public should be reading comic books just to get hooked on reading while private schools are busy actually learning content and understanding relationships. Reading is thinking and learning. It's a form of communication. You wouldn't have children watch just any TV show or listen to any conversation just to get hooked on talking. You'd want the communication to be meaningful.

Wow, I do teach 4th grade students in 2 public schools, and have never seen teachers give kids comic books to get them hooked on reading. They read grade appropriate books.

+1 My son is in a standard middle class elementary school, heading into 4th grade. They are allowed to pick whatever they want out of the library for silent reading time, and certainly there are graphic novels (particularly Dog Man, etc.) being read during that time. But the actual books the vasy majority of students read in class or assigned for homework are grade-level, content rich novels. I'd love to know where these schools are that are having 4th graders read comic books. My guess is they don't actually exist and people are making things up to suit their agenda.

Our school has independent reading 3 days a week and during remedial time which includes MyON and picking books off shelves. It's part of daily five program. Read to self, read to someone, Listen to reading. It does exist as a program although I don't think it is particularly effective as children get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
True, but there are many public schools where there are only a few children with any difficulty and they go to see a specialist. No reason why in 4th grade the majority of kids in public should be reading comic books just to get hooked on reading while private schools are busy actually learning content and understanding relationships. Reading is thinking and learning. It's a form of communication. You wouldn't have children watch just any TV show or listen to any conversation just to get hooked on talking. You'd want the communication to be meaningful.

Wow, I do teach 4th grade students in 2 public schools, and have never seen teachers give kids comic books to get them hooked on reading. They read grade appropriate books.

+1 My son is in a standard middle class elementary school, heading into 4th grade. They are allowed to pick whatever they want out of the library for silent reading time, and certainly there are graphic novels (particularly Dog Man, etc.) being read during that time. But the actual books the vasy majority of students read in class or assigned for homework are grade-level, content rich novels. I'd love to know where these schools are that are having 4th graders read comic books. My guess is they don't actually exist and people are making things up to suit their agenda.

Our school has independent reading 3 days a week and during remedial time which includes MyON and picking books off shelves. It's part of daily five program. Read to self, read to someone, Listen to reading. It does exist as a program although I don't think it is particularly effective as children get older.

I'm not saying that kids don't have independent reading. I'm sure most schools do that and I'm sure in a lot of schools it can be any book at all. I'm pushing back against the suggestion that some schools are "teaching" comic books as a hook for reading.
The teaching portion of reading (ie, your "read to someone, listen to reading parts) in my experience includes high quality grade appropriate books.

[Anonymous]

Well I think you have a lot of teachers disagreeing with you. They've mentioned comic books, star wars, etc. to get kids hooked on reading. My original point was that 3-4 days a week just having independent reading is a much different reading program than the program kids are getting in private schools where they are required to read higher content and higher thinking books with limited choices and also required to respond after reading verbally or in writing.

[Anonymous]

Public Schools need more teachers like this who actually think critically about the programs they are implementing. http://www.creativityinthemodernclassroom.com/2016/01/why-daily-5-is-not-effective-in-my-classroom/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public Schools need more teachers like this who actually think critically about the programs they are implementing. http://www.creativityinthemodernclassroom.com/2016/01/why-daily-5-is-not-effective-in-my-classroom/

In most public school districts, teachers are not hired to "think critically." They are hired to implement what their admin tells them to implement. The boss of their admin told them to implement it so that's what is done. It doesn't matter that teachers who are actually in the classroom know it doesn't work. This is what teachers deal with all of the time. Should I just nod and smile during the meetings and then close my classroom door and do what I know is best for my students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public Schools need more teachers like this who actually think critically about the programs they are implementing. http://www.creativityinthemodernclassroom.com/2016/01/why-daily-5-is-not-effective-in-my-classroom/

In most public school districts, teachers are not hired to "think critically." They are hired to implement what their admin tells them to implement. The boss of their admin told them to implement it so that's what is done. It doesn't matter that teachers who are actually in the classroom know it doesn't work. This is what teachers deal with all of the time. Should I just nod and smile during the meetings and then close my classroom door and do what I know is best for my students?

If teachers were told everything they had to do, this thread wouldn't have been started. There are ways to both use a system and not use a system. Either schools systems are for Daily 5 with whatever book a student is interested in be it comics or Lord of the Rings is appropriate for upper elementary kids who already can read well three days a week or they aren't. Meanwhile private schools make sure they know what books kids are reading and what they are doing with those books.

[Anonymous]

The OP asked about independent reading. In all of the schools I've worked in, independent reading is way down on the list of importance. In two of the schools, the admin didn't want any independent reading time. They saw it as a "waste" of instruction time.

[Anonymous]

However the reality is that many public schools, not all, are instituting a lot of independent reading time with little to no check on what is being read.