Chapter Four

It is always important to remember that when it comes to teaching students, one has to be specific. I learned this fact the first day of my internship when I was asked why the student had to do the work. A simple “because I said so” does not suffice with students and it should not. This same attitude should be applied when teaching students comprehension and understanding of reading. I enjoyed that Kylene Beers discussed how vital it is to be specific when asking students questions such as, “what is the main idea of the story?” Granted, it was kind of hard to follow her during the paragraph of questioning and re-questioning, but there was value in the advice she was giving. When it comes to the student mind, it is crucial that we, as teachers, model what we want the students to do as well as using different strategies, such as the think aloud, to demonstrate to the students what it is that they are looking for and what it is we want them to say.

I was pleased when Beers brought up the constructivist teaching theory; it reminded me of my Current Instructional Trends class.  In that class we focused on the different teaching theories and how as a teacher you must pick one to abide by, but at the same time you can incorporate other strategies if it fits the lesson that you are teaching. I found that Beers touched upon this when discussing her take on the constructivist theory and how she also adopted the teaching strategy of being direct and explicit in her modeling of the reading strategies. Also, the discussion she had with Kate hinted toward the fact that lecturing the students, the rote instructional theory, although easier, is boring for both the teacher and the student. I enjoyed that this difference was brought to light through the very specific discussions that were written between Kate and her students and Kate and Kylene Beers.