Carr, Eileen; Aldinger, Loviah & Patberg, Judythe (2004)
Teaching Comprehension: A Systematic and Practical Framework With Lessons and Strategies.
New York: Scholastic Teaching Resources.
As an elementary school teacher, finding resources that help me ensure student success is imperative. With a busy schedule—like most teachers I know—I have little time to read practitioner-oriented books, so I look for those with several qualities: easy-to-implement strategies; research that backs up the suggestions given; and straightforward readability. In Teaching Comprehension, I found all three.
One of the first priorities in my reading instruction is comprehension. While many students appear to be proficient readers, how do I, as a teacher, know that they actually understand what they read? The authors of Teaching Comprehension offer numerous research-based strategies for teaching students to understand text and then use what they have learned.
Even better, these strategies are adaptable to fit a range of students in grades K through 6. At first, it seems implausible that the authors could explain a number of teaching methods for seven different grade levels in just under 300 pages. But the writers use adjustable techniques and manage to address the needs of students at nearly every level. The "Semantic Map" or the "Literary Report Card" can be used by students across the spectrum of reading abilities. In a time where differentiation is increasingly popular, these flexible techniques facilitate easier teacher-planning.
With many teacher resource books, the authors provide a bag of tricks without backing up their suggestions with lessons learned from educational research. In Teaching Comprehension, however, the authors go to great lengths to explain how their plans are supported by research. When parents—or administrators—ask why students are making Circle Stories or Story Pyramids (which both look quite artistic), the authors provide simple, direct explanations for how the techniques support students as they become better readers.
Finally, I appreciate the book's clear-cut setup and writing. The best feature of the book, however, is the CD-ROM that accompanies it. Instead of searching through paper files to find a copy of a graphic organizer, I find it much simpler to keep the CD-ROM, which contains 85 worksheets, on hand.
Pages: 288
Price: $27.99
ISBN: 0439531357
Reviewed by Katie Wester Neal. She recently completed a Master's in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and will be teaching fifth grade in Loudon County, Virginia, in the coming school year
