After reading about comprehension, I have learned a little bit about my own comprehension strategies. I always scored high when I was younger in the comprehension sections of tests. I am a fast reader and I usually get what I need to get out of the things I read. I use different strategies though, depending on the context or the task. If a teacher gives me an assignment that obviously pulls answers straight from the text then I am what Applegate terms a literalist. I read all of the questions and then scan the text for answers. I usually only use this strategy when I am in a hurry or if it is just a busy work assignment that I won’t really benefit much from. Applegate says that “When we can match the reading profiles of our students with the instruction they need, we can put our children firmly on the road to effective, rewarding, and engaged reading throughout their entire lives”. I agree with this statement and I think it is important to recognize that there are many different kinds of comprehenders.
While in the field, I have noticed some different kinds of comprehension processes. During reading groups, two girls who were at similar reading levels were reading the same book together. Every time that they start reading groups they always read the last page over again of the part that they finished the last time they read the book. This is a great strategy to re-orient them to what they had learned last time they read. Another group I worked with was reading a shorter and lower level book. Each time I sit down to read with the two of them they say, “Let’s start over, I don’t remember anything”. So they start over and each time we read we get to about the same spot in the story when it is time to switch stations. We need to work on a new strategy for comprehension because these two students are not progressing in their book since they start over at each session. We should maybe jot down some notes about the characters before we stop reading so that next time we just have to recall a few facts and then continue with the story.
Chapter seven of Tompkins talks about eight different comprehension strategies. I notice that in my own comprehending I use two of these eight more often than other. When I am reading I am constantly visualizing what I read. This does help me remember things more clearly in the future. I also found that I monitor my reading, no matter what it is that I am reading. I frequently re-read paragraphs or go back to find the name of a less frequently appearing character just to make sure I am thinking of the right person. I go back to check on vocabulary words too. I find that both visualizing and monitoring are two comprehension strategies that seem to help me out a lot.
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I agree with you when you say that there are many different types of comprehenders and as future teachers, I believe it is very important to recognize these different types so that we can facilitate their learning of proper comprehension strategies based on their strengths and weaknesses. I like you idea of how you can start a new strategy for the students who are not progressing in their books. Jotting down information on the characters, or even the setting or creating a simple summary of what was read that day might be a good way to be able to continue with the story. Do you believe that they are not remembering anything because they don’t comprehend the text, or is it a different factor (maybe they aren’t really paying much attention to the text or do they maybe get off topic while they are reading). Have you seen any clues which are demonstrating to you why they can’t remember the readings? Do they have these issues only during group reading or is it across all subjects? Maybe if you were to explain to them the comprehension strategies which you find the most beneficial, they too could use them and not have to re-read the text every time.
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