Comprehension in the Content Areas
29-Jun-07
I recently ordered Cris Tovani’s latest book, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? after browsing through it at a bookstore. There is a very good chance that I will be teaching Ramp-Up again next school year, after a one year hiatus. For me, the course is RUAL in name only… I don’t plan to follow the RUAL curriculum closely. Instead, I prefer to go to the source. RUAL is based on research and case studies done by Cris Tovani, Kylene Beers and Ellin Oliver Keene, to name a few popular teacher-researchers. I use their ideas in ALL my classes, not just the ones that are considered to be low-level, or in the 9th grade classes.
What I especially love about Tovani’s books in general is the classroom play-by-play that shows exactly how the strategy might be taught and when. I really like to have that visual…when I read about new strategies, I’m less likely to try it out in my classroom if I can’t visualize how it might play out with my own kids. I’m a few chapters in the book now, but I have some things to say about chapter one.
First, in this chapter, she reviews what is known in RUAL as the 7 Habits of Proficient Readers, or strategies. I’m glad she brought that up again, right in the beginning because I definitely need a refresher. To be sure, I always have these things in the back of my mind as I teach, and as I compose lessons or units but it’s never an explicit thought, which means that when I write those lesson plans, I’m not specifically thinking about how I teach or review that strategy.
Second, I have two bones to pick. Look at this quote from the chapter:
“Teaching a few strategies well is a key aspect of my work. Rather than a large grab bag of gimmicks and techniques, I find myself returning to these core skills with students and teachers. I would rather my students master a few core skills than be exposed to so many strategies in a short period of time that they don’t master any of them.”
My first issue is this: Tovani seems to be using “skills” and “strategies” interchangeably. I disagree with this. Skills and strategies are two completely different things. Skills are things that our students can DO, while strategies are ways of achieving that skill, or the HOW of performing the skill. For example, I often work with my 9th graders on determining important information. This is a skill. The strategy I teach them for practicing this skill is to look for repetition and to identify experts in an non-fiction article (like those found on the NYS Regents exam), among other things.
It’s a clear distinction, right?
Now for my second issue with this paragraph: I would argue that it is useful to teach all the strategies then allow students to become good at those strategies that work best for them. The chief complaint here is that there isn’t enough time. But consider this: What if you began teaching strategies from Day 1, in a series of mini-lessons, giving students an arsenal of sorts from which they could choose the strategy they like best. Then, challenge your students to practice those few strategies over and over again. I read an article recently that said that strategies don’t work when the kids don’t remember to use them. This is where it makes sense to ask kids to master a few strategies well, so the strategies become internalized. But not all strategies work best for all kids, and how do you choose which are the best ones to focus on? You can’t, so teach all of them, then allow your students to choose their favorites.
If you remember, I recently attended a workshop on Co-Teaching, led by Dr. Marilyn Friend. In that workshop, she said that it was really important to balance process with content. Tovani leans the same way, hence the subtitle of this book. Even though I only teach one content area, I do find it appropriate for me to work with my 9th graders on reading strategies for other content areas.
More updates to come.
