Becoming Real Readers

This year my building is doing a book study of Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor.

Thus far I have only implemented the first set of lessons on metacognition, but I am pleased with the results at this point.  Let me preface this with the fact that the past 12 days of school I would swear I was teaching in the middle of the Sahara Desert instead of just northwest Ohio.  It has been hard to get my kids, or myself for that matter, to think deeply about anything other than how much we are sweating.  I think it is this very fact that has made me so impressed with the way the students have been able to connect to the lessons, despite the overwhelming heat and humidity.  I am following McGregor's plans as faithfully as possible, with only a few tweaks or deviations here or there.  For those unfamiliar with the text, the author crafts lessons that begin with very concrete, kinesthetic experiences, and progresses to more abstract ways of understanding the particular reading strategy.  For example, in the first lesson on metacognition, you explain the process of thinking about text by making a mock reading salad with construction paper and salad bowls.  The students really enjoyed the lesson and have referred to it since then.  One of the last lessons involved using paint chips to help students think about their level of understanding when interacting with text.  Hence the progression from concrete to abstract.  I think though, that the class's favorite lesson was the day we used the cartoon thought bubble to demonstrate thinking while reading.  One of our reading intervention teachers helped me with this, and it was the perfect way to model what real reading is, and what real reading isn't.  We then gave the students the chance to be the models.  They really had fun taking turns being the "reader" or the "thinker."  There were a lot of excellent points about real reading that emerged that day, points that I have then been able to use in my individual reading conferences with students.

Again, if you are not familiar with these lessons, or McGregor's text, I encourage you to pick up a copy at a local or online bookstore, through your Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc., at the library, from a colleague, or wherever and however else you can get your hands on one.