The next section of No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss is full of “critical practices” for making Independent Reading (IR) successful. Barbara Moss gives a brief overview of seven must-do strategies including reading in class, students choice, explicit instruction, how to increase text numbers, access to text, teaching monitoring, and time to talk about what has been read.
The last section on student conversation about their reading struck me the most because of the emphasis on peer discussion. My middle schoolers adore talking to each other. Here’s a way to channel that talent! “Peer discussion is one way that students can demonstrate their knowledge of their reading, which helps to make them accountable and improves comprehension. “(Moss, 35). The author goes on to recommend two approaches: Instructional Conversations and Questioning the Author. I need to research these strategies and see how they can fit into our study of world history. Another strategy explained is Reciprocal Teaching. This strategy “helps students monitor and develop their own comprehension” by questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting (Moss 36). About half of my class struggles with social studies content comprehension.
I am excited to learn more about these strategies and test them out in my classroom. I would love for them to head to seventh grade with the ability to self-monitor their reading comprehension!
You are most definitely correct with middle school students loving to talk. I think the peer discussions will be a great way to let them talk, but with a purpose.
ReplyDeleteHi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI love how you are applying the suggestions that Moss and Miller provide in their text with your middle school students. Their suggested strategies for helping to build comprehension and motivation through scaffolded social interactions with peers such as instructional conversations and questioning the author can promote meaningful discussion and collaboration in ways that support content learning. I know the pressure is on us when students come to us for social studies and the standard list is long and the time is short. Many times we rely on lecture or giving students lots of information to process, especially when we know our students may struggle as readers with understanding content specific text and vocabulary. I want to encourage you to try out these strategies with your students using short pieces of content specific text and then have them work to teach each other using the reciprocal teaching strategy. It may take a little longer but they outcome of increased understanding and the growth in their informational reading I believe is worth the time investment.