Turning reading into comprehension

Dr. Williams-Black Assignment: Read Chapter 3 in Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents, and write a blog response to the reading.


It is well understood that literacy needs to be taught and reinforced across all subjects, but to do this, one must first understand what it means to be literate. It is tempting to think of literacy as merely the ability to read text, but true literacy necessitates a comprehension of that text. Teachers must go beyond just strengthening basic reading skills; they need to be taking their students' reading to the next level, and that involves teaching students to analyze and understand what they read. The payoffs of doing so are invaluable, as students who are actually able to comprehend what they read are at a much greater advantage.

I think the chapter makes a really good point when it talks about the possible natures of discussion. Obviously if the goal is to increase comprehension, discussion most be more focused on the meaning of the text, and less on the content of the text. All too often, teachers get caught up in only worrying about whether or not their students are retaining the information contained in what they are reading. However, without having students elaborate on the text through discussion, one can not be sure if the students are actually understanding what they read, or if they are just merely recalling information. Students should be encouraged to think about everything they read, and this type of analysis and deeper investigation should be a common part of every classroom.

I particularly like the method of strengthening students' abilities to process text at different levels of understanding. The message to take away from the chapter is that students need to understand text beyond just knowing what the words are, and this can easily be done if the students are given the opportunity to make the text relevant to themselves. This is best done by first assessing prior knowledge of the content contained in the text, and then following the text with real-life examples, facilitating the creation of those mental connections that in turn lead to that deeper level of comprehension that we are all striving for.

Personally, I've found that this method usually isn't too hard in the teaching of biology. Since all my students are obviously living and biology is the study of life, the subject matter tends to lend it self well to real-life examples. For the most part, the majority of the concepts found in biology have direct and significant applications in my students' lives, so providing them with these examples readily captures their interest in the material. To build off the content contained in Chapter 3 of Content Literacy for Today's Adolescent, I will need to try other methods of increasing reading comprehension to better ensure that my students are given every possible opportunity to learn