I haven't read the article, only the abstract.Strategy teaching is teaching students to become aware of how we comprehend -what our brain does when we comprehend. It is all about how we think, and teaching children to focus on that thinking to help themselves comprehend text. It is giving the students the tools they need to be able to work on comprehension themselves -independently. Teacher lead questions from a basal may lead to comprehension, but what happens when the teacher is no longer there? Questioning is one of the strategies and teaching children how to question (deep questions, not surface questions) is one way to lead them to comprehension. As a teacher I always felt teaching the strategies was teaching them to become independent at their learning. When a teacher guides students through a text asking all the questions, who has done all the work and all the thinking? The students are just scrambling for answers, often to please the teacher. And yes, you can lead them to the understanding you want them to have through the questioning given, but have they learned how to do that themselves?
Jan We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit. -Robert Shaffer > From: [email protected] > Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:14:57 -0400 > To: [email protected] > CC: [email protected] > Subject: [MOSAIC] Does strategy instruction inhibit comprehension?/Cross > posting > > > _Click here: Reading Research Quarterly : July/August/September 2009 : > Abstract of Rethinking Reading Comprehension Instruction_ > (http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/journals/rrq/v44/i3/abstracts/rrq-44-3-mc > keown.html&mode=redirect) > > I am more than one listserv. Within the past month, on one of the > listservs, someone posted the link to this recent article from Reading > Research > Quarterly. I read the abstract, sent the link to my students and printed out > the article. It is 37 pages long so it got set aside. Recently, I woke up at > 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I decided that reading something on > the "dry" side might help me nod off. However, when I started reading this, I > was hooked. Although this is a small study, the repercussions of this > research project caused me some disequilibrium. I can't find the email with > the link that originally prompted me to investigate this, even though I've > searched the archives. It really doesn't matter. What I was hoping is that > others of you would take the time to read it in the next couple of days, and > then we could have an online conversation about it. Unfortunately, I believe > one has to be a member of IRA or have access to a university library in > order to get the complete article. You can read the abstract at the link > above. > > One more thing, in the notes at the end of the article, Tim Shanahan is > thanked for being "instrumental in the conception and design of the study." > Tim has chatted with us on the Mosaic list before, and I know some have > strong feelings about his beliefs in regard to literacy. If we decide to > talk > about this research study, maybe someone could draw him, or one of the > authors, into our conversation. > > Just to cause a little provocation, as they say in Reggio, the research > that the article was written about suggests that strategy instruction is > possibly the least effective in helping children understand content area > reading as compared to a basal, or discussion with questioning, about the > content. The authors also suggest that strategy instruction might inhibit > comprehension because students ( 5th graders in this case) are thinking > about the > strategy rather than the content. > > Let me know if anyone is interested in having an online conversation > about this. > > Nancy > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
