| Shouldn't They Already Know How to Read? | | | | precedes the act of engaging with text. In most |
| Comprehension Strategies in High School English | | | | school systems, formal reading instruction typically |
| Let's face it: Teachers like school. And English | | | | ends in middle school, implying that secondary |
| teachers love language. Naturally, there are | | | | students are presumed to have acquired the |
| exceptions, but, in general, teachers' experiences | | | | literacy skills necessary for academic success |
| of academic failure are minimal—as are English | | | | prior to entering high school. Secondary English |
| teachers' experiences of frustration with reading | | | | teachers understand the fallacy of this |
| or writing. Brian Nicholson and Grainne ODonnell | | | | presumption. Every year our classes include |
| maintain that "Most teachers were 'good' | | | | students who have difficulty comprehending |
| students—capable, well-regarded children who | | | | various texts. However, without a Omega Replica |
| were able to work effectively towards a desired | | | | background in reading instruction, we frequently |
| outcome. For us, effort and result usually | | | | end up as frustrated as the students. Our innate |
| balanced. And if we had a strong aptitude for a | | | | talent becomes an enemy precisely because |
| particular Replica Tag Heuer Watches subject, we | | | | language fluency, for us, is relatively effortless. |
| could get good results with minimal effort". It is | | | | Why students can’t understand and apply |
| probably safe to assume that most of us who | | | | what, to us, seem like intuitive literacy processes? |
| chose to teach English language arts developed an | | | | One remedy for this dilemma lies in the explication |
| affinity for language and literacy practices early in | | | | of these processes. If we can reveal, first for |
| our lives. Our comprehension strategies developed | | | | ourselves and then for students, the thinking skills |
| intuitively, almost naturally, as we encountered | | | | that underlie effective comprehension strategies, |
| and even sought out interesting and challenging | | | | then we can teach these strategies explicitly, the |
| texts. Like talented athletes, we probably became | | | | way we teach concepts and information. Recent |
| fluent readers and writers almost effortlessly, our | | | | scholarship demonstrates the effectiveness of |
| skills fostered by our passion for the worlds we | | | | teaching strategies that facilitate text |
| discovered and created through language. | | | | comprehension. This type of intentional instruction |
| Many students, however, bring skills to school that | | | | offers secondary teachers tremendous possibilities |
| differ from those of practicing (or aspiring) English | | | | for helping struggling readers. Practical implications |
| teachers. These students may excel in the areas | | | | that will be described below include active, explicit |
| of music, mathematics, athletics, or art—but | | | | engagement of higher order thinking skills coupled |
| struggle as users of language. For them, reading | | | | with the application of the gradual release of |
| and writing feel painfully unnatural; they have | | | | responsibility model. |
| experienced so much failure that frustration | | | | |