Chapter 9: Vocabulary

Chapter 9 offers many suggestions on how to move away from the traditional vocabulary instruction that teachers have used for years, memorization. I particularly enjoyed this chapter because so often students are learning words that they will probably never use just to pass the vocabulary test on Friday, and then forget the words by Friday afternoon. I remember as a student memorizing words upon words that I have rarely ever used. I probably wouldn’t even be able to put them into a sentence in the proper context because I was only concerned with getting an A on the spelling test. So what can teachers do to get past the old-school vocabulary memorization strategy?

Beers provides many useful suggestions in this chapter. It is paramount that teachers find interactive, fun ways for students to learn new vocabulary that will be beneficial to future reading and writing. One idea that I really liked from this chapter was in lesson 2: teaching students how to use the context as a clue requires that students see relationships among words and can make inferences about the passage. In my field experience, my students get all of their vocabulary words for the week from the text that they are engaging in that particular week. I believe this is really helpful for them, as they are seeing their vocabulary words being used in a real text. My field experience cooperating teacher introduced to me to an activity that our students really enjoyed. It is called Vocabulary CPR. (Context, Product, Resource). In this activity students use the context of the word to figure out the meaning. They then use a resource to identify the definition of the word. This has been very useful for my students, and these are students who have special needs.

I believe there are numerous ways to make vocabulary instruction fun and meaningful. It is up to the teacher to decide how to do so. Beers provides us future teachers with many great ideas pertaining to vocabulary instruction. I will definitely use these as a reference in my own classroom one day.  

Chapter 8: Extending Meaning After-Reading Strategies

Chapter 8 offers strategies that extend the meaning-making process to after-reading activities which will ultimately help dependent readers figure out “how to get it” throughout the entire reading process. Just like Chapter 7, Beers shares several strategies in great depth and then touches on a few other reading strategies that are equally beneficial to all readers.

I really liked how Beers discussed how it is important for teachers to view comprehension as a process and not a product. Beers suggests that if we view comprehension as a process, versus a product, then meaning making extends to activities that occur once the books is read. It is not sufficient to hand students a worksheet with 25 comprehensive questions after reading a text. We must engage them reading strategies that help students focus on constructing meaning.

One reading strategy Beers discusses in this chapter is the concept of a scale. This was new to me. These scales help students make comparisons, recognize contrasts, draw conclusions, and distinguish between facts and opinions. Scales are beneficial for students who need assistance organizing their thoughts or who benefit from seeing information arranged in graphic form. As a future Intervention Specialist, I can see a scale being very useful for my students who struggle with reading and organization. My students may be more apt to engage in discussion when understanding that there is no right or wrong answer and they can only be assessed on their participation.

Another strategy that I believe can be very beneficial for those who struggle is text reformation. Text reformation is a strategy where students transform a text into another type of text. For example, a student may turn expository text into a narrative. I believe that if dependent readers can turn a story into something they are more apt to relate to, they really will have comprehended the text. I could aid in doing these reformations for those students who need extra help, so they are more apt to get the meaning behind the original text. I believe students will enjoy this strategy as they work towards fully comprehending a given text.

All of the strategies that Beers provides in this chapter are great, but there is one more that I see extra beneficial, especially to the audience that I will be catering to as an Intervention Specialist. I believe my students will really find the Sketch to Stretch strategy useful. In this strategy, students work independently or with a partner to create symbolic sketches of their interpretations of the text. Drawing is also popular among young students and this way those students who may struggle with writing can show what they took from the text in a different manner. Beers has really suggested some great strategies in this chapter that I look forward to using in my future classroom. 

Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning During-Reading Strategies

Chapter 7 offers several during-reading strategies that will help dependent readers gather more meaning from texts, and ultimately help them transform into independent readers. Beers suggests that, "it is more critical for dependent readers to talk about text during the reader experience than after it," p. 104. This means that we, as teachers, must pull the invisible process of comprehension to the visible level, which suggests bringing conversation into the classroom as the students are reading, and not just after they have 'read' a text. In order to do just this Beers provides us with numerous reading strategies that can be used in a classroom to aid in comprehension during reading.

The first during-reading strategy Beers suggests is called Say Something. Say something is a really simple strategy that interrupts a student's reading, giving the reader an opportunity to think about what he or she is reading. This strategy is done with a partner. When each reader has reached a specific point in the text, they will stop and discuss what they have read so far, what they understand, what they don't understand, making predictions, etc. I believe this is a great method for students to use while reading. Say Something can also be done silently, where the student would simply jot down their ideas on a post-it or piece of scrap paper. 

Another during-reading strategy to aid in comprehension is rereading. According to Beers, rereading is probably the number one strategy independent readers use when something stumps them in a text. It is also probably the last strategy dependent readers use. I believe rereading is very important for readers to do, whether the purpose is to gather more meaning because the reader didn't understand it the first time, or to look at the text in an alternative way. I also really enjoyed how Beers questions how often teachers-the people who should see the most value in rereading- convince students that there is no value in rereading important texts. For example, how many times have you been told that you can not use a book you have already read for a book report? This is a great point Beers makes and I agree that the advantages of rereading far outweigh the disadvantages.

Finally, the third during-reading strategy Beers provides us with is the Think-Aloud. This strategy helps readers think about how they make meaning. As students read, they pause occasionally to think aloud about connections they are making, images they are creating, problems with understanding that they encounter, and etc. This oral thinking helps the student analyze how he/she is thinking about their reading. It also allows the teacher to understand why a student is having difficulty with a text. I believe think alouds are important for students of all ages and of all subjects. It is also imperative that the teacher often models think alouds when introducing new things.

Beers provides us several other strategies that would be of great use in a classroom. All of these are equally as important as the three that I just described in detail. Double entry journals, logographic cues, bookmarks, ABC’s of comparing and contrasting, post-it notes, character bulletin boards, syntax surgery, signal words and reflections are all strategies that I would someday love to use in my classroom. 

Chapter 5: Learning to Make an Inference

Chapter 5 discusses inferences and how to effectively teach children how to make inferences when reading a text. Too often teachers tell children to make inferences during reading to gather meaning without ever explaining what an inference is. Chapter 5 provides us with several activities that will help children learn how to use inferences to gather meaning from texts. It is not enough to simply explain that an inference is the ability to connect what is in the text with what is in the mind to create an educated guess. We, as teachers, must model how to make inferences and show the different types of inferences. Figure 5.3 in the text is a great tool to refer back to, to show the types of inferences skilled readers make along with comments that teachers can make to help students make certain types of inferences. For example, “Skilled readers recognize the antecedents for pronouns.” The teacher could comment and say something such as, “Look for pronouns and figure out what to connect them to.”

Beers also explains that, “readers must transact with the text, constructing meaning from the information that the author provides in the text and the information they bring to the text.” p.69. As a future Intervention Specialist, it is important to understand that this transactional nature of reading often escapes readers who struggle. Their job, as they see it, is to simply decode the words written on the page. If the meaning isn’t immediately apparent, struggling readers often just give up or ask the teacher to explain the meaning. Knowing this, it is paramount that we, as teachers, use the suggestions provided by Beers to help students make inferences while reading.

Some useful activities for students who may need additional help in making inferences include:

1. Posting a list of types of inferences that readers make on a large poster in the classroom. Referring to this list will ultimately turn the word infer, or inference into something more concrete. I like this idea for students who struggle. Having something laid out in front of them is often helpful for those who need a reminder or something to see laid out in front of them.
2. At least once a day, read aloud a short passage and think aloud the inferences that you make while reading. This will inevitably help the students. Modeling making inferences often will help students understand how to make an inference while reading.
3. Syntax Surgery. Turn a short passage into a transparency, and model how you use inferences to create meaning in the passage by marking up the transparency as you think aloud.
4. Bring in cartoons or bumper stickers that require the reader to make an inference to understand the meaning behind the cartoon or message. This would be a short but run activity for the students to practice making inferences and to see how they make inferences with texts across all types of genres in order to create meaning.