Chapter 3

After reading this book, I found that my own reading skills improved. I really did start thinking about my thinking as I read. I'm thinking that this comprehension skill, "Mindful Reading: Monitoring and Revising Comprehension," might very well be the most important strategy of all. After all, it is helpful to know that you are not understanding what you are reading (like "Girl" at the beginning of this chapter). I'm also thinking this skill would come in handy with all the "school stuff" we do...problem solving in math, science thinking, etc..The insights I have when I read this chapter, is an idea of what needs to be done and used to put strategy study into practice in the classroom. A few of these are: explicit modeling of thinking, using charts, sticky note and conferencing. It all seems relatively simple and cost effective.One sentence causes me a lot of discomfort. It is found in the first full paragraph on page 63. It reads: "For better or worse, we all learn the most from adversity, not just as readers, but in the wider circles of our lives." I don't like adversity...or problems...not for myself and especially not for my own two children. When I observed Ellen Keene demonstration of teaching a thinking strategy, in Houston last year, I remember feeling very uncomfortable when one of the students in the group struggled with a thought (for several minutes) while hundreds of teachers watched. It made me realize that, when this happens in my classroom, I jump in and try to "save" the student, thus robbing him/her of a chance of learning (and articulating) problem solving and new thinking. Now, when this happens, I try to bite my tongue, and allow the time it takes for the student to think of how he/she wants to tell the group about his/her thinking.The last paragraph of page 55 really surprised me the first time I read this book. It is true that when a student has a problem in reading, we immediately assume it is a decoding or vocabulary problem. The fact that research has shown that most of our reading problems in school do not stem from these two issues has opened a whole new way of thinking for me. Now I spend a lot of time trying to give my students the keys to opening the deep structures of reading (rather than the surface structures). That is why I want to start instruction of these strategies at our school. I know this will help all children in all subjects (and all testing)!I found the role of the teacher (as stated on pages 54, 57, and 61) to be helpful when thinking about how I can implement this way of guiding my students’ acquisition of thinking skills. Some are: giving students tools and teach them to be flexible, adaptive, and independent using the tools; scaffolding student learning, conferring with students, and finding additional help for student.

Some of what I underlined in this chapter is: “Listening to Your Inner Voice,” page 49; most of page 53 (helping when students struggle); the last paragraph on page 62 (the importance of a good teacher, as opposed to the use of a program, prescription or set of materials).

As with every chapter of this book, pages 63-65 give good ideas for mini-lessons for this strategy.

Please post your thinking about this chapter. We want to hear about it!

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