Chapter 8: After-Reading Strategies

Chapter eight has a lot of activities to help students with comprehending what they have read. I think comprehension is a huge issue that students have most of their trouble with. They can get through reading a book but when it comes to talking about what they read they go blank. Having a support system or somewhere to start would help them immensely. 

One common problem with students in all classes is that they are afraid to answer a question because they might get it wrong. Even if students have a glimpse of the answer they are afraid that they will be made fun of by other peers. So, strategies like using Scales would help students think about their reading while not being afraid of getting it wrong. One student told the teacher that he didn't feel he could get the answer wrong after she started using Likert scales because they seemed more opinion-based (Beers 142). This shows that students will take part in an activity if they think they won't get made fun and only their opinions will tested. 

I had never heard of the Somebody Wanted But So strategy so it was interesting to find out that this simple activity can help students with summarizing information. It is just what it says, somebody wanted something but something happening so instead another thing took part. Asking students to give answers to these questions helps them to see what is going on as the teacher puts the answers on the chart. This helps the students by being able to both see it and hear it. One thing to remember about this is that it usually works better with narratives. Later on we will see strategies that work better with nonfiction. 

Retelling's are a simple strategy that can really help students focus on what happened in the story. I best liked how teachers charted the students progress. This showed the students how they were progressively getting better, boosting their self-awareness. Also retellings can help teachers see how well they are teaching. Retellings can help teachers re-structure their lesson plans if something they thought they were teaching was not obvious to the students in their retellings. 

The It says-I say strategy is used to transfer what the text says into what you get out of it. This activity helps the students take the question and get quotes directly from the book to then convert it into what that student actually thinks. This helps the student be able to rephrase or grasp main ideas from what is being said. It allows them to put what's being said back into their own ideas. 

There were so many strategies in this chapter. I think this will be a good guide for the future to gain ideas for our own classrooms. Once putting them into action they will make more sense and seem more affective. The last short strategy I liked was-Save the Last Word for Me. Students were asked to copy passages onto a card of their favorite parts. Then, on the flip side they wrote what they thought of the passage. The students went around in circles reading their cards and having the other students respond to them. The student whose card it was got the last turn reading what they thought. The ending was my favorite part because I think it would distill a sense of pride in the reader. Allowing them to feel like they got that one last word in to make the difference and leave a lasting affect on all the other listeners.