Chapter 7:  Reading Comprehension

Key Points

• Comprehension is the focus and goal of all literacy instruction.
• Skills taught separately from comprehension send the message that comprehension is not an integral part of reading and writing.
• Comprehension is a complex task that requires specific strategies for teaching, learning, and assessing.

Book Study Activity Objectives:  Participants will:

Collaboratively describe, define, and compare active reading strategies that are effective for biliteracy instruction and which incorporate all the elements of comprehension: reader, text, and context.

Important Points for Discussion:

• The four active reading strategies presented in this chapter beginning on p. 92 are good for ALL students and not just ELs.
• Since oral language is the first element in the biliteracy unit framework, it should not be abandoned after launching the unit but rather embedded throughout the unit to support the use of academic language throughout the unit.
• Consider discussing how the strategies presented in Chapter 6 may be used in conjunction with the reading strategies here. For example, Sentence Prompts can be used with Say Something, TPR with Language Experience Approach, and Sentence Prompts with Readers’ Interviews, just to name a few.

Instructions for activities, and notes for book study leader:

• Provide four copies of the Bubble Map for each participant for notetaking:  one bubble map per strategy. (Be sure to check the format to make sure the bubbles are copied correctly)
• Create four big Bubble Maps on chart paper for the whole group to process together.
• The purpose of a Bubble Map is to describe the qualities of a concept using adjectives and adjective phrases. The concept to be described goes in the middle bubble which is the biggest bubble. For this activity, one Bubble Map will be utilized to describe each of the active reading strategies discussed in Chapter 7.
• After reading Chapter 7, take the time to highlight each of the active reading strategies by collaboratively describing them and noting the main descriptors of each strategy on each of the four Bubble Maps. This may be done as a jigsaw, where each group completes a Bubble Map of one of the strategies, and then each group shares their map with the larger group.  Or, alternatively, this may be done as a gallery walk – with groups of participants visiting each of the four Bubble Maps in turn, and adding to each map.  
• After discussion and completing the Bubble Maps, consider asking the teachers to commit to trying one of the Active Reading Strategies by the time you meet again.

The Bubble Map is one of the maps utilized by Thinking Maps. To learn more about Thinking Maps visit: https://www.thinkingmaps.com/why-thinking-maps/what-are-thinking-maps/the-bubble-map/

 

Download Chapter 7 Activity