I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers

by Tovani, Cris

• ISBN13: 9781571100894
• ISBN10: 157110089X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Pembroke Pub Ltd

Summary

I Read It, but I Don't Get Itis a practical, engaging account of how teachers can help adolescents develop new reading comprehension skills. Cris Tovani is an accomplished teacher and staff developer who writes with verve and humor about the challenges of working with students at all levels of achievementfrom those who have mastered the art of "fake reading" to college-bound juniors and seniors who struggle with the different demands of content-area textbooks and novels.Enter Cris' classroom, a place where students are continually learning new strategies for tackling difficult text. You will be taken step-by-step through practical, theory-based reading instruction that can be adapted for use in any subject area. The book features: anecdotes in each chapter about real kids with real universal problems. You will identify with these adolescents and will see how these problems can be solved; a thoughtful explanation of current theories of comprehension instruction and how they might be adapted for use with adolescents; a What Works section in each of the last seven chapters that offers simple ideas you can immediately employ in your classroom. The suggestions can be used in a variety of content areas and grade levels(6-12); teaching tips and ideas that benefit struggling readers as well as proficient and advanced readers; appendixes with reproducible materials that you can use in your classroom, including coding sheets, double entry diaries, and comprehension constructors.In a time when students need increasingly sophisticated reading skills, this book will provide support for teachers who want to incorporate comprehension instruction into their daily lesson plans without sacrificing content knowledge.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Ellin Oliver Keene
Acknowledgments	xi
Part 1 Setting the Stage	1	(22)
Fake Reading	1	(12)
The Realities of Reading	13	(10)
Part 2 In Support of Strategic Reading	23	(90)
Purposes for Reading: Access Tools	23	(12)
Conversations with Cantos: Tracking Confusion to Its Source	35	(14)
Fix It!	49	(14)
Connecting the New to the Known	63	(16)
What Do You Wonder?	79	(18)
Outlandish Responses: Taking Inferences Too Far	97	(10)
``What's the Plan?''	107	(6)
Part 3 Access Tools	113
Double-Entry Diaries	115
Comprehension Constructors	121
Coding Sheets	135
Works Cited	139