Scaffolding

Previous to reading Chapter 13 of When Kids Can't Read, I assumed that high school students of lower reading levels should read novels more at their level, rather than what the advanced English students read.  Because of the case study in the book, I realized that, for example, all tenth graders can read Huck Finn.  The difference is that some students need help comprehending the text, while others are more independent.  Perhaps English Teachers could recommend each student to a general level class, moderate or advanced for the next grade, so the students are better grouped with similar learners.  Each of the classes would read the same text, only the lowest level would have more scaffolding and more comprehension exercises in the class, while the upper level class could work on higher levels of thinking.  In this way, all students read the grade level novel, but work with the text in a way that is most helpful to them. 
  As it is right now, most students are enrolled in middle level English classes, yet not all of them are able to succeed in them.  If the teacher assigns an activity to enhance making inference and comprehension skills, the students who have mastered these skills would be bored, which would be unfair to them.  If the teacher only focuses on higher level thinking, many lower level students would tap out and not succeed, which is unfair to them.  If students could be better broken up based on their skill levels it would be easier for the teachers to focus on certain areas and more students would succeed.

(Chapter 13)

Fluency and Competent Readers

     This chapter made me realize that just because a student does not have fluency in their reading does not mean they are not comprehending a text.  From my own experience, it seems that usually comprehension comes to readers who read fluently and acknowledge punctuation.  Early in the chapter, the author (Kylene Beers) includes a transcript of a one-on-one lesson she has with a first grade boy.  She provides him with a few sentences and asks him to read aloud.  It is clear from the breaks in the transcript that his reading is choppy and without inflection, yet, when Beers asks him to summarize the story, he does so flawlessly.
     Examples like these make it more evident how many different types of reading and/or comprehension problems there are and they exist in all different types of students.  This makes me more aware of how important both formal and informal assessments are because it is not always easy to diagnose exactly what is wrong.

(Chapter 10)

Vocabulary

 I remember my middle school days of receiving a vocabulary list every week to memorize for a test that Friday.  One or two of the words always stood out in my mind, actually learned, but the rest of those words were always forgotten.  I would always do well on the tests, and even I forgot most of the words, so looking back I wonder if some of the other kids who didn't do as well even retained one word.  When Kids Can't Read touches on this issue and I agree that learning only a list of 5-8 words a week would help students retain them better and they would be more willing to learn such a few amount of words. 
Chapter nine also touched on vocabulary graphic organizers and ways to chart or draw words. This approach seems very juvenile, and every time I was asked to do something like this in school I would get it done in about a minute, not having retained anything.  I think the quizzes at the end of the week, and speaking the words in class is enough, and perhaps having a Jeopardy style game every month to cover the words again.  I love learning and teaching new words, but the classroom approach must be age appropriate and not in a large quantity.


(Chapter 9)