Highlighted in Pink (Ch 1 & 2)

I think it may be a valuable exercise in preparation for next week's presentation to review the Chris Tovani book Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? and revisit the points I have highlighted in pink. Before I begin I'd like to make a confession regarding my reliance on pink highlighter. In my life as an actor, the very first thing I do when I receive a new script is read through it and highlight all of my character's dialogue in pink. It makes the script easier for me to work from and easier to learn. I often joke that "If it's not pink, I can't say it". The thing is, though, I may be joking - but it's true! If during my initial read through I overlook a line or two, I will in all likelihood fail to say those lines during rehearsal until I have attended to them with my trusty highlighter. Perhaps my brain is busy with so many other things during rehearsals it needs me to be consistent with what I expect it to do... or maybe conditioning is strong... or I'm lazy...

So... what have I highlighted for myself here? I'll start with the introductory chapters 1 and 2. The first point of note is the quote from Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis on page 3: "A reader with no questions might just as well abandon the book". Tovani explains that asking questions is a strategy she uses to help her to read uninteresting material. She emphasizes that the questions must be ones which she really cares about and is truly curious about. This struck me as an excellent strategy, particularly when faced with a piece of text which does not initially appear to be particularly relevant or interesting. I have noticed this year how much easier it is to read, for example, a dense or lengthy journal article when you are seeking an answer or a piece of information. The reason this became so apparent is that during prac real questions arose for concerning effective behaviour management in the classroom. What works? What doesn't? What is effective? What is the right thing to do? Revisiting all the prescribed reading for the Promoting Positive Learning Environments exam took on a whole new dimension. I wanted to know what the text contained for me. It mattered. It was easier to read than it was before prac - as are many of this semester's readings - because I have real questions that matter to me.

The second point in pink is "Good readers monitor their comprehension. They know when the text is making sense and when it isn't...they recognise that they are confused and then do something to repair meaning." It is so interesting to me to deconstruct the reading process. Although I was not conscious of it I am in the habit of checking myself as I read. If I have read a paragraph without taking in meaning - usually because it is in some way too complex for me, perhaps it about a subject I am unfamiliar with, or my attention might have wandered (I am a Gemini, after all...) - I will make a conscious effort to revise the paragraph with improved focus before I proceed further without comprehending. There are a number of other strategies I recognise from my own reading and can pass on to my students. These include:

"Activating background knowledge and making connections between new and known information." - Linking to prior knowledge, definitely something I can assist with in the classroom.

"Using sensory images to enhance comprehension and visualize reading." - Another factor which I now realise is a part of my own reading process. I very quickly lose concentration if I cannot form a vivid mental picture of what I am reading. Perhaps in the classroom I might bear in mind that although I might have a clear image of the text my students may not and it would be well worth my while to invest some time into discussing and creating visual representations - like Joey did as he listened to Hatchet being read aloud in class. I think this is where the Smartboard and the internet are a godsend. If we're reading about the Canadian wilderness, we can explore it online. If there's a porcupine and a moose in the story, we can listen to the sounds they make... I am reminded of an exercise I did with my class whilst studying the same novel. I had the students go outside to build shelters to protect them from the cold, just like Brian had to do to survive in the novel. Not only did they absolutely LOVE this activity - it really grabbed their attention and aroused their curiosity. Suddenly they wanted to know what else happened in the novel.

The "fix-up strategies" listed are also very useful to recognise and consider, and I will single out two that I have used to great effect in the classroom:

"Ask yourself a question and try to answer it". I saw how well this strategy worked in enhancing students' understanding of a text, particularly when the question they were asked to consider required them to empathise with a character. They might be asked something like "The character in the novel responded to this situation such a way... how do you think you might have responded in the same situation, and what do you think the outcome might have been?" In answering a question such as this, students engage much more actively with the text by having to consider it from their own perspectives.

"Retell what you've read." This is a good method for checking my own comprehension of a text - a film, an article, a novel - can I explain it to someone else? It's often an indicator to me that I have not understood or remembered something. For example, at uni when someone asks "Did you do the reading? What is it about?" Now and then I'm stumped. I've read it, but I've not taken it in. A good exercise for assessing a student's understanding of an event in a story or a play is to ask them to retell the event from the perspective of another character in the story. Once again, this is an enjoyable activity, it often allows the students to be quite creative and humorous, and it allows them to explore elements like plot and character more thoroughly - and then demonstrate how thoroughly they have understood what they read.

The next point I have highlighted is "Meaning arrives because we are purposefully engaged in thinking while we read." I think this is an excellent principle to bear in mind. As a teacher, I need to keep things interesting, engaging, facilitate questions, keep the process active, keep it alive...

I was interested to read Tovani's "Essential Elements of Comprehension Instruction". Four basic points which seem so obvious but which it might also be so easy to overlook. Assessing the text for relevance and accessibility. I don't like reading stuff that's boring, irrelevant, and completely beyond me - so why would my students? They wouldn't, of course. Making explicit my own thinking and reading processes. Now this is more challenging and has concerned me all along. I have never struggled with reading (except, as I've pointed out, when it is boring or I am unable to make any connection to the material) - and as a result I have never thought about my processes and am not conscious of them. Reading Tovani's book is quite enlightening on this subject - as I read I am thinking "I recognise that - I do that!" or "No, that's not me, that's not how I read". As I said earlier, deconstructing reading is a very valuable process in that it will help me become aware of strategies I use and can share - and perhaps am already unconsciously sharing! Make sure students understand how the information they read and write will be used. Yep - establish relevance and connect it to their lives. I have already experienced the result of NOT doing this and let's just say it's an exercise in futility I do not plan to repeat in a hurry: "MI-ISS! THIS IS BO-RING! WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS? IT'S OLD. IT'S LAME..." Ah-ha. Never again. Teach students to hold thinking and give them opportunities to use the information they've held. I think this is a natural progression from the previous point, and I think this must be one of the really lovely things about teaching a class for a long period of time. The class as a group has shared memories of shared learning to build upon and use as time goes by.

Right. Time out!