Reddit reviews Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement

Stephanie Harvey's book, Strategies That Work, explains the difference between good readers and great readers. It's based on research on the brain. In it she describes great readers visualize, predict what will happen next, make a connection to self or world or other texts, question if something doesn't make sense, summarize, determine the most important in informational text. I made a two column chart with these on the left side and blank on the right side. Students filled in the blanks as they read each chapter. No two students are going to summarize in the same exact words or describe the image it created in their head in the same way. It was easy to catch if someone copied. The class discussion on the chapter that day came from the chart. I would go around and ask the students what their connection was or what questions they had. Students realized quickly this wasn't busy work so more did the reading outside of class. You really can't bluff your way through "Describe the picture you saw in your mind when you read that scene?" I asked my seniors one day if they got bored doing the same thing every day in class. Would they prefer art projects or mixing it up? They expressed relief that they liked the routine and knew what to expect each day. I started the year with a power point on what great readers do differently so they could think about their thinking. Then I modeled what I wanted them to do. I was honest and told them my personal experiences, "I was confused in Fahrenheit 451 when he floats down the river. Is he day dreaming or did that really happen because in the barn he relates a different version? I had to go back and reread that about three times to make sure I understood it." I was so proud that they felt comfortable enough to admit in front of their peers where they got confused and what questions they had.

I'd teach some metacognitive strategies so he can start interacting with the text as opposed to just decoding, and begin to recognize when he isn't understanding what he's reading. Strategies That Work by Harvey is a great resource that I use all the time. My favorite is Question, Connection, Reaction- you have three different colored stacks of sticky notes and while reading, students need to write down a question they have about the text, any connections they can make (to another story, their life, etc.), or reactions they have to what they are reading. Takes a lot of modeling at first.

Well, there are the study guides. They are expensive but lots cheaper than taking the test over and over.

The real issue, it sounds like, is that she has not been well prepared for doing reading intervention. Ask her how many sounds are in the word "car" if she says 3, she needs more phonemic awareness knowledge. She definitely needs to make sure she is teaching with blendable sounds as well. That video is from the University of Florida Literacy Initiative. I would highly recommend following them on facebook as they often post very good, up to date information for teachers regarding effective practices and interventions.

More great books: Strategies that Work, CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook, Words Their Way, Bringing Words to Life and everything else by that author.

Now, this one is much harder, but it changed my life as a teacher. She needs to read this book. It is dense. It is hard. It covers EVERYTHING we know about how people acquire and utilize the ability to read. It also covers what can go wrong. It is fantastic. A buddy to read this with would be great. I have a study guide for this book, I read it in grad school, that I would be happy to email along if you want to pm me an email for her.

If she wants to tell me what kinds of questions she's seeing that she doesn't know, I'd be happy to send along resources or chat with her.