Thinking and Reading

‘The “E”-generation needs to comprehend more than ever before. … They must be prepared to analyze, validate and ask the next logical question. They have to know how to think.’

This quote comes from a book by Cris Tovani, an American educator, called I read it but I don’t get it (p.110.), which has encouraged me to reflect on the relationship between thinking and reading, a topic I raised in an earlier post titled The Reading Revolution.

Tovani’s book is a simple account of how good readers operate and shows teachers how to explicitly teach that information. Many teachers will be familiar with some of her strategies, as frequently we are good readers ourselves and have used these strategies to gain access to meaning in our own learning as well as our classrooms.

Annotation, or the use of sticky notes, is one of the first tools she discusses and one I have been using forever. (Digression: I was delighted that my sister worked for 3M during my undergraduate years when she introduced us to Post-It Notes and Tape-Flags. All my texts since that time have been punctuated with little bits of paper and plastic.) Showing students my annotated texts has inspired many to follow suit – with even greater organisational and colour-coding gusto.

Tovani, though, goes further. She invites us to plan the annotation students make on texts with specific connections to aid comprehension. She writes that ‘By the time students enter middle school, they have begun to rely on their teachers to tell them what their reading is about.’ (P.98.) Making annotations or sticky notes which record the teacher’s explication, e.g., ‘Here Hamlet is referring to blah...’, is not helpful for individuals trying to comprehend the text. Instead, Tovani argues that the students try to make the following, more personal, connections:

• Text to self: Connections between the text and the reader’s experiences and memories.
• Text to world: Connections the reader makes between the text and what she/he knows about the world (facts and information).
• Text to text: Connections the reader makes between two or more types of texts. The reader may also make connections relative to plot, content structure, or style.  

Tovani argues that by making personal connections it allows students to ‘hold on to [their] thinking as they process text’. This one strategy has the potential to improve student comprehension when encountering the reading material accessed in any subject. And there are many others in this book.

Cris Tovani writes in her conclusion ‘… that comprehension strategies are really thinking strategies and are used in every aspect of our lives.’ (P. 109.) All teachers know this on some level. With greater knowledge of strategies, every teacher could be teaching comprehension, and therefore thinking, every time their students engaged in reading. 

Teacher Talk Two

In my previous post I defended teachers delivering content rather than using content from the Internet. Today I'd like to extend on the last point I made about some teachers overdoing the teacher talk.

Recently professor John Hattie told a group of teachers at a professional development seminar to "Shut up and listen". This message comes from his research into expert teachers. In his 2003 paper, Teachers Make a Difference, he identifies teacher talk as one of the factors that differentiates expert and experienced teachers.

Making time for thinking within the class environment is essential across all subjects. Teachers need time to plan not to talk in their classes so that thinking can take place.

There are a number of ways to reduce teacher talk but it may be diffiuclt to accomplish if the teacher is unaware of how much time they spend verbalising in the classroom.

A Year 10 student I know well (who attends a different school to the one at which I teach), was telling me the other day about her difficulties in improving her writing for English. She related how her teacher spends almost all lesson "talking" and the students complete written responses at home. When she submits the work, she receives a brief written comment. I think what she was trying to say is that she would like the opportunity to write in class time and receive immediate feedback as the process was occuring. To do that her teacher has to talk less.

In talking less we give students time to think, reflect and respond. The teacher in the above scenario could give students a block of time for editing and rewriting when work is returned. Perhaps the students could form editing groups and offer each other suggestions on their work prior to rewriting. Many theorists agree on the value of resubmitting work and the value of tinkering (see earlier post).

Some years ago I stumbled across a dept of Ed document for primary school teachers with a formula for helping students improve their writing. It is called the POWER method: Plan - Organise - Write - Edit - Rewrite. I have found this incredibly helpful in getting students to consider their own writing and how it can be improved.

The key, however, has been to allocate class time to the process. This gives students an opportunity to think, perhaps talk to each other about their work, and quiet time for rewriting. The teacher talk is reduced and all conversations become much more individualised.