>Why grade comprehension of a story when it doesn't matter 5 years >from now whether or not the child knows the problem and solution of >a particular story. There are some children who could read a story >and fill in the answers to a comprehension test without our >instruction...so how do we know what they have learned without >looking at how they have come to comprehend or the processes??
The following is not my effort to convert you from your thinking to mine, just an explanation of my thinking. =) There are several things here that I see. It isn't the comprehension of a particular story that is important. Comprehension of *that* story is a measuring stick of how they comprehend all reading, when you put the stories together over time. It also depends on what you use as a "comprehension test." I have never given fill in the blank, multiple choice, or even short answer comprehension tests and expected that I knew the first thing about a child's understanding. (Doesn't mean I didn't give some kind of short answer test in order to come up with grades, but not to understand comprehension. I believe that grades are largely synthetic - people demand them, and so we keep having report cards that show them.) Understanding a child's comprehension processes really takes conversation. The kind of conversation that happens face-to-face with children, and by listening to children's conversation with each other. The kind of conversation you might have with a friend about a book you've read. Do you ever read a book and say to your friend, "I had trouble figuring out what the problem was in this story, and I'm not sure who the main characters are." No, I don't think that happens often. =) That's the looking that I would do at the process of comprehension. We can't look inside a child's head. What comes out the mouth usually clues us, especially if we listen more and talk less. My students gave me new views on things as old as the Little Red Hen! When we listen to them, we are hearing the process, the use of strategies. If we've modeled and used the common language we want, they are using it, too. We're having a discussion between, or among, equals. We can guide things along with a question here and there, nudging them in a particular direction, but they can carry the discussion on their own. After we show them how. The response journals are also helpful in seeing their thinking processes. We did a lot of double entry journaling, but not always. I modeled that in the classroom with several read aloud chapter books before they took over doing it on their own, on huge chart paper. At first, I wrote the entries, then I got their input, then they worked with partners. Except that some did do it on their own before they needed to. Wait, that's release of responsibility, isn't it? =) I took home 1/5 of the journals each night on alternate weeks, or sometimes stayed at school to do them. I read them, dialogued with them, and used them as assessment for the teaching/learning process. I think that the tool is not the point of the teaching. It's necessary to teach the use of the tools, but the comprehension is the goal. This might be heresy, but I don't really care how the child gets to the point of comprehension. If they can comprehend this story today, that story tomorrow, some non-fiction next week, and a poem or two, they probably will be comprehenders for life. I believe that the tools help a huge percentage of children reach that point, but some get there on their own, and I wouldn't mark them down because they didn't do it my way. No one taught me the strategies. Probably no one taught you. It probably took us longer to get where our students can go today. Each teacher has to decide what is important about comprehension, I suppose, and base the teaching/learning cycle on the philosophy they develop. There are dozens of reading programs, reading methods, and always have been. Some work better than others, and some are pretty awful failures. The reading strategies are about the best thing I've seen come along in reading instruction in a career that spans the last 30 years. They help the most children achieve the goal of reading comprehension. I'm grateful to Ellin and Susan for spending the time it took to research, think, ponder, revise and review until they had the original Mosaic of Thought published. I'm grateful that the research continues. I suspect that there are even more insights coming our way. I used the ideas of Mosaic in my classroom in a 4 Blocks literacy environment, and my students were very successful in progressing along the path of comprehension and also enjoyment of reading. Even in the beginning, when I did it badly, they did better than when I hadn't done it at all. Grades will always be a pain, no matter how you choose to do them, or on what you choose to base them. I very much doubt that our educational system is going to come to the point of evaluating in some form other than grades. -- Susan _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
