Our "academic/school" work has recently been focused on developing two habits. These are habits that strong readers do in in their minds when they read. They think a lot, in many different ways. And they notice when they are confused about what the author is saying. We worked on these two habits while reading a variety of current events magazine articles. We tallied the different kinds of thinking we saw ourselves doing, and students looked for patterns in their own work. We then talked about why noticing confusion may be the most important thing a reader does. This habit leads readers to always be conscious of whether or not they are understanding the author's words and message. We practiced noticing confusion, and then worked on what we do with that confusion. Students realized that there are a number of fix-up strategies one can do to clear up confusion.
What can you do to support these habits?
- Offer to read part of your child's book aloud to him/her. Share your thinking as you go.
- Point out or tell your child about something you read recently that was hard or confusing. Explain or show what you did to makes sense of the text.
- Talk to your kids about things going on in the world. Use grow-up vocabulary. Much of their current confusions stem from ideas and words and places that are unfamiliar. A big part of reading comprehension and making inferences is having expansive background knowledge, so the more kids know the better off they will be.
