Renee I think you and I may have gone around on this before but let me be devil's advocate here...we are teaching reading, are we not? We are not teaching a book or a story. And, in my mind, reading is procedural knowledge...a process, not an end product. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter if a kid understands a particular book. ( I will leave that to the secondary English teachers.) I don't care if at age 40 the child can remember all the details of a particular story he read in second grade. What I want him to have is a set of strategies he can use when he is not understanding something. Reading is a tool used to gain understanding about text and through that text, the world. If we don't assess whether or not a child can visualize, how will we know whether or not he will have that tool when he needs it? Having said this, I understand we can go around the bend too far with strategies. Comprehension is the end point...I understand that, but I worry if we don't look at how the kid got there we are missing something. If a child never needs to stretch and use a strategy now and then, perhaps we aren't providing them with enough challenge. I have come to the point where I look at both things in my class. Does the child understand what he just read? AND Does he know what to do when he finds something he doesn't understand and can he apply the strategy effectively? Just my humble opinion... Jennifer In a message dated 10/13/2007 12:17:13 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Um..... in my mind, we don't assess strategies themselves. We assess comprehension and the use of strategies are part of that. If a student is comprehending well, I don't worry whether or not they are using every strategy. One student may use more visualization, another student may use no visualization, focusing more on the verbal aspect. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
