Kaylee Foster’s April Blog: Routman (2003), Chapter 8: Teach Comprehension

This chapter does a great job in breaking down what it takes to teach comprehension and to be successful at it. Routman makes a great point that if we want the end result to be comprehension then comprehension must be our starting point. As I step back and look at my own personal teaching I know that I focus on comprehension a lot but I wouldn’t say that is where I begin (more specifically with my lower reading group). With my lower group of readers I spend a significant amount of time on fluency and word calling. Although we do stop to make connections, predictions, inferences, ask questions, etc. I know that I could spend more time on this. Routman stated that “they learn to read the words, but by the time the focus shifts to comprehension, they have lost years of knowing what real reading is about”. That statement alone was an eye opener for me and absolutely breaks my heart. I don’t want a day to go wasted for my students to know the true joys of reading.

The million dollar question is what is the right way to teach comprehension? Routman starts with balancing explicit instruction with lots of time for application. We do not want to hold our students back by giving too much instruction. They still need more time to apply it. The key processes that we as educators need to focus on is predicting, questioning, creating images, seeking clarification, and constructing summaries. Routman also points at that the strategies we teach should not be individualized but rather strategic reading. I absolutely love how Routman states “effective strategy instruction is about developing readers who actively and independently monitor and regulate their own comprehension”. In other words if we are teaching comprehension the right way we will see the result of this.

            The first question that popped into my head was, how can my lower level readers possibly do all of these things if they struggle over words or specific concepts? As I continued reading Routman had an answer to this, the suggestion was to use text that are easy enough and meaningful enough to support comprehension. It may take work on the teacher’s part to find the best books that will support comprehension but the end result will be priceless. Routman also states that “if students are reading for understanding, they should know 95 percent or more of the words they encounter”. This brings me back to my original question. If I have five students who struggle with any book that is put in front of them (the simple sight words even). What should the focus be? I am not disagreeing with the fact that comprehension should be embedded from day one but when you have readers who still need to learn words like I, the, at, etc. More time is going to be dedicated to teaching the words with comprehension mixed with in. Often times we stop and discuss even after we have read just one sentence because sometimes that one sentence takes us five minutes to read. We will stop, discuss, and recap what that sentence was actually telling us. Routman states that “we need to use common sense in the amount of time we spend teaching fluency”. This is so true, obviously I don’t focus on fluency nearly as much with my middle and high level group. This goes back to there is a time and a place for everything. Teaching fluency is a must with my low level group but I will strive to embed teaching comprehension even more in this group specifically.