Chapter 4,5 "When Kids Can't Read"

"And just how do I teach any of those strategies" (referring to Comprehension tasks)

I have covered comprehension and Blooks Taxonomy several times in my past blogs to make my point about HOW important I believe comprehension is when dealing with struggling readers. But more importantly, how can we teach comprehension? Beers suggests to teach comprehension EXPLICITYL and DIRECTLY in order to have the biggest effect on students. The first step to take when teaching students explict and direct comprehension, you must PLAN and MODEL what you will be presenting. You need to establish some specfic strategies to use. Some strategies that I have found useful would be Graphic Organizers (Venn Diagrams, Webs...etc.) You can appoint the main ideas and importatn detaisl in the reading. Secondly, Beers suggests to present what strategy the child will be using and how to apply it to the reading by speaking aloud. It is important to TELL the students what you are thinking and WHY you are thinking it. Overall, Beers suggestions go on to three or four more steps to use when teaching comprehension. Even though most of your students will be able to comprehend stories quicker than others, it would be convenient to represent these steps to take at the beginning of the year so you can set the expectations for the rest of the year.