I Read It, But I Don't Get It By Chris Tovani

The first thing that I liked right away from the first chapter was the idea of discussion as an aid in understanding. Using discussion allows students to ask questions and come to conclusions about the book they wouldn't have originally come up with on their own. Through using the intellect of their peers, their own understanding is broadened. If no one knows the answer to a certain question, chances are they can hash out an understanding by putting their heads together to come up with an answer.

Something that has helped me as a student is determining purpose before I sit down to read. What information am I looking to pick out of the text? Do I need answers to a worksheet? Am I studying important concepts? Am I look for themes or symbols? Helping students determine what their purpose is before they sit down and read is an active way of figuring out what you need to read. If there is a purpose behind it, it tends to be easier to comprehend simply because they are not taking in the excess amount of information that is not relevant to their cause. The loudness of words becomes substantially quieter when there are fewer to focus on.

What I'm learning to do in my placement classroom currently is instead of having students "popcorn" and read from the book, I myself model and show students what it looks like when a reader is reading. By doing this, I am modeling how I mentally interact with the book by perhaps laughing out loud at a section, or pausing to ask a question out loud when one strikes me. Maybe I even pull out the dictionary when I come to a word I am unfamiliar with. Tovani calls this method "thinking out loud."

Sometimes students don't realize they are stuck while reading a text. Tovani says that if they experience any of the following, chances are they are stuck:
1.) The voice inside their head isn't interacting with the text.
2.) Their mental movie is no longer projecting.
3.) Students find their minds wandering/daydreaming about unrelated things.
4.) They can't remember what they have previously read.
5.) Clarifying questions asked by the reader cannot be answered.
6.) The reader has no idea who a character is or when they showed up.
These are the first steps to learning how and what ways to tackle lack of understanding.