Chapter 6,7 "When Kids Can't Read"

"Activating Prior knowledge- Crucial part of reading-thinking process."

Activating schema! Another wonderful way to initiate comprehension and inferences. Beers quotes "I'm not sure it's the best way to help students become actively engaged with a text....and thinking about the selection and how they will read the selection before they begin the text." I had mentioned before that asking questions about a story is important in order to activate comprehension and schema. If they are able to search through the story and do practices by looking at "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid," they will be able to practice looking for important ideas and main details. By getting a descriptive story such as "The diary of a Wimpy Kid" and graphic novels such as "Emily Edison" or "Kid Houdini" struggling readers can start to maek a connection between illustration, selected text and the comprehension questions given after the story is read. a K-W-L chart would be a great tool to use when teaching students to activate schema in reading a story. (What I Know, What I Want to Know and What I Found Out).



"The Think-Aloud strategy helps readers think about how they make meaning. As students read, they pause occasionally to think aloud about connectionsthey are making, images they are creating, problems with understanding that they are encountering , and ways they see fo fixing those problems."


By thinking aloud teachers can understand what students are thinking and getting from the text they are reading. This way the teacher can direct her or his students in the right direction of what they should be getting from the text and story and to even get a different outlook and perspective on a selection. This also helps students to get corrective feedback on their responses and conclusions from the story. This will help progress their inferences and comprehension of the story, therefore allowing them to progress in their reading.