Harvey and Goudis’s chapter 4 in Strategies That Work provided many strategies that help students become motivated and independent readers. I think that encouraging students to become more autonomous in the classroom benefits their academic and personal lives. One strategy mentioned was asking open ended questions. I believe that open ended questions enable students to think critically and focus on the lesson. In my clinical class, my cooperating teacher asks the students “thick” questions when doing a shared reading. This allows all students to think deeply about the focus area and a chance to answer the question. As we have talked about in previous classes, activating student’s background knowledge benefits their comprehension of the text. I liked how the chapter describes how thinking aloud and reading aloud with the students helps them to activate their background knowledge and get them to think critically about their reading.
Another important aspect of engaging students with reading is allowing them to read material that they find interesting. I think that is an excellent point that is noted in the chapter, I feel that I would be more of a reader today if I was able to read books that interested me throughout my education. Students will be more interested in what they are reading and more eager to share their texts with the class. There are many methods to creating a fun and beneficial reading lesson to the classroom. Small group instruction seems to make a big difference with students understanding of the text. With more one on one time and everyone responding the students get to form their own ideas, questions and opinion as well as hearing other student’s perspectives. In my clinical class, students are encouraged to write post it’s with questions or comments about their independent reading books. I think that this helps the students better understand the text and reminds them if they have any questions. Overall, the strategies mentioned in the chapter are beneficial in motivating students to read and helping them better comprehend their texts. It is methods that I would like to utilize in my future classroom.
I agree with Jaimie's thoughts about open-ended questions in the classroom. I too have seen this done many times in my Clinical One classroom. Open ended questions give students the freedom to truly think about a topic and give their opinion with facts that support that opinion. I also agree with using other strategies in the classroom such as small group instruction. Small group instruction is key especially in a classroom that consists of special needs students as well as mainstream (inclusion classrooms). Students need to feel that level of comfort so they can explore ideas and make mistakes without having the fear of being made fun of or laughed at. Jaimie brought up many key points that are important for future teachers to know.
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