Chapter 4: The Essence of Understanding

Without comprehension there is no reading. Comprehension is the core of reading, and so many students struggle with it. How can students read if they can't comprehend? I feel like many teachers fall guilty of having students write summaries, ask basic questions, and give a test when assessing comprehension. I am guilty of it as well. This type of assessment for comprehension is not higher thinking, and it will not stick with the students. I loved the opening story of this chapter. How simple of an activity was that? Students were exploring photographs and having deep discussions with each other. This is every teacher's dream! I believe students want this kind of learning too. It is fun and engaging! It is not a drill and kill lecture. Students need to be challenged. They need to be able to discuss, explore, and create with their peers as while as individually. I feel that this can be a challenge because teachers are on a strict schedule. They don't have time to take two weeks on a given concept. They are told to move on to the next one. We are so use to teach the concept quick and move on. I wish I had more time to teach concepts to make sure my students really get it! I believe students want the same thing. They will get so much more out of school if they had a chance to fully understand what is being taught. This is a life skill. In the workforce, students are going to be required to concentrate intensively, dwell on ideas, struggle for insight, manipulate their ideas, explore, discuss, and create. Why not get a head start and begin teaching students how to do these things? When doing this, we will teach students to understand fully! There have been so many times in my teaching career where I know I didn't do my best at teaching a concept, but I know it is time to move on. I feel that teachers have this stress because of the high-stake testing. There are so many concepts that need to be taught before the dreaded high-stake testing at the end of the year. What would happen if we didn't worry so much about the testing and really worried about the success of our students in the real world?