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.