Beers begins by telling the story of a time she went into a high school classroom and aimed to teach a different kind of comprehension lesson to get students talking about what helped them understand material best. She got the students engaged in a meaningful discussion about Brown vs. Board of Education by sitting them on the ground and reading a "way in" text with them. During the lesson, she pointed out important information and led students to jump in. Although in the beginning the students probably felt silly to engage in a process that seemed so elementary, I think it greatly contributed to a discussion that allowed students to be personal. Thinking back to the reading rug as a kid, it was the place where students could share thoughts and ideas among the closeness of friends. This high school lesson felt similar to this, a more advanced version of course, but a place where students could feel comfortable discussing. I really liked what the student said when they were evaluating why the lesson was successful, "If I know how the people felt, I sort of become a part of it." For me this rings true when I am seeking to gain comprehension. If a text pulls on the heart strings of my emotions, I am sucked in. I believe that these types of lessons that trigger emotions can help students speak up about their thoughts and opinions. I believe that creating a classroom environment that allows for these types of discussions will help students in their efforts to engage during class.
The Dimensions of Understanding that Beers went over helped confirm that the definition of comprehension is more than what shows up in the classroom. It is sad to admit that a lot of times in high school I was just looking for the answers to finish assignments and for what information I needed to memorize for the test. Teachers need to be willing to take opportunities to reach deeper and show students that answers are not always just black and white. Making content relevant and personal while giving students chances to look deeper helps them to participate in discussions that can lead to further understanding. When looking at the statement about dwelling on specific ideas, I think back to my senior year contemporary world issues course. I had a teacher who was always challenging us and inspiring us to reach further. I never found myself to be a history person, but his class made me passionate about and aware of the present-day issues we were discussing. There would be some issues that we would take class time to focus solely on, giving us opportunities to practice reflective thinking about history. We still had time to answer the more objective questions about the material, but when it was paired with questions that made issues personal and not just facts and dates from history, that is when I found myself truly comprehending.
Hinchman's chapter on comprehension was a good way to look at what the best practices are for teaching students to be well versed in the art of comprehension. When looking specifically at the "key instructional practices," "purpose for learning" is one that I would agree to be true from personal experiences as a student. High school students are often found to complain about learning information that "isn't relevant" and make comments such as "when am I going to need algebra to succeed in life?" When students realize that content is not something they need to retain longer than the time it takes to pass the next exam, they treat it as such. When information is approached as being meaningful and relevant, whether it be learning a necessary skill for the future, or connecting to an aspect of student's lives, it becomes more important. I complete all of my readings for my education courses because I am motivated to learn information necessary to becoming an effective teacher. I believe that teaching is sometimes all about making those connections between content and the value of the content. If the goal of learning is to reach the phases of generalization and application, students need to understand that the material is something worth more than just answering a test question.
For me, I always found close-reading to be a way that I best comprehend information. I am big into annotation and find that when I write a note on, underline, or highlight a word or phrase, I remember it. Especially in English, taking notes on a story would greatly help me remember my thoughts and questions about it when we would come back to class. Without note taking, I would forget aspects of the story I found intriguing or meaningful after a night of sleep. My other classmates were not as adamant about note taking and often poked fun at me that I would go the extra mile to take notes. I needed my notes! They were my way to understand. Even though it is not everyone's style to take notes, teachers should encourage note taking especially on more complex texts so students can attempt to process and retain the information they read. If not note taking, teachers should model (another "key practice") different ways to comprehend information. To end with a note from Beers' chapter, you need to "catch students in the act" so that when those moments of connection and comprehension do come, you can analyze what worked and why.
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