WHEN KIDS CAN'T READ: WHAT TEACHERS CAN DO

ONLINE CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION

Explicit Instruction in Comprehension 

This week you were asked to read Chapter 4 in Kyleen Beers book, 'When Kids Can't Read'.   I am inviting you to spend some time to reflect and discuss the concepts brought up in this chapter in your online D2L discussion groups as well as a NEW whole group discussion area set up just for 'whole group reading discussions'.  However, to get us thinking and to provide an opportunity for us to share as a whole group.  I would like you to post a visual that could be a metaphor for the chapter 4 in our new D2L whole group reading discussion area. 

For example: 

Here is my visual metaphor for chapter 4 (the above child with the lit light bulb in hand).  When I think of comprehension and providing explicit instruction in comprehension I can't help but to think of a second grader that I had who was struggling with comprehension.   Wyatt was able to decode and read fluently, but often struggled with comprehending what he read (sound like any children you know).   After some direct instruction in visualization we had a conversation that went something like this: 

Me: After reading that section can you make a movie in my mind of what was happening. 

Wyatt:  Yes and no.  I think I would see . . . (and he goes into some details from the story)

Me: Well that is a good start.  Let's read some more and try to continue to build a movie in your mind. 

We continue with this throughout the reading.  At the end of the book I invited Wyatt and a few other children I was working with to reread the story and work on making a movie in their mind of the story they were reading. As I was working with another child in the group Wyatt jumped up and yelled across the room, "I can see it, I can see it!"  He ran up to me and said, "I get it!"  "I get what you mean by making a movie in your mind"  "I can see the story happening in my mind."  

In that moment I felt as if I witnessed the infamous "light bulb" that teachers talk about going off in Wyatt.  A few weeks afterwards Wyatt's mother asked me what I did because they cannot stop Wyatt from reading.  

Directions:

1) In the NEW D2L whole group reading discussion area please post a visual metaphor for the whole class to see. 

2)  Take a few minutes to describe why you feel the visual metaphor you have chosen connects with Beers' chapter 4. 

3) Consider the following prompt in relation to Chapter 4: 

        What are the central ideas discussed in the chapter?  

        What issues or ideas does Kyleen Beers explore in the chapter? 

         Do the issues affect you as a teacher?  How so---directly, on a daily basis, or more generally. 

4) Answer the following prompt ( as well as discuss something you think is important in relation to this chapter) in a written response that you will post onto D2L in your online discussion group area 

5) Your response to the above question/prompt should be a two to three page response (about 500-750 words) 

6) This response should be posted before class on Saturday, October 13. 

Important this is a two part response: 1) post a visual metaphor in our NEW D2L whole group reading discussion area for ALL to see.  Please provide a short write up explaining how your visual metaphor connects to the reading.  2) Please post a written response onto the D2L-online discussion area answering the question posed above.