Developing Thoughtful Comprehenders

Chapter 7 in Classrooms That Work, speaks about how important it is to not just teach students how to read but also to teach them to understand what they are reading.  I completely agree that without background knowledge, the text is really hard to understand.  I know when I took my philosophy class at The University of TN, I was often confused with the reading because I did not understand what it was speaking or relating to so comprehension was really difficult to where I would have to read it more than once, look on the internet for information that would be helpful, and ask a lot of questions during discussion.  I am sure that this has happened while I was in elementary school as well, when I came across vocabulary words that I did not understand.  Also I have noticed that when I read it seems that I am just reading through the words but not taking in the information, as this was talked about in the reading, Developing Thoughtful Comprehenders. 
I think it is important to predict what is going to happen in the text before reading, and imagining what the experience will be like.  I feel that using open-ended questions is also a great way to assess students as to whether they understand the reading or not.  I know that personally it helps when I can relate the text to the world, as talked about in chapter seven. 
I feel that students need to know how important it is to have comprehension skills, as it helps with talking in social settings, greater choices of books to read, and also collaboration skills.  One way to do this is by finding important ideas,  reading the text in segments, and by questioning.  I really liked the idea of using the "beach ball" method to help students comprehend reading. With this a permanent marker is wrote on each segment of the ball with phrases that tie into the reading.



Have you ever felt like when you read something for a college class that you were wasting your time because you were not comprehending the information?  Did it make you feel like you were not going to do well in the class?

Source:  Cunningham, P. M., & Allington, R. L.  (2010).  Developing thoughtful comprehenders.  (Chapter 7, Classrooms That Work.)