Learn-ing how to teach read-ing comp-rehen-sion

Overview:
Through this experience at this Middle School, I learned strategies on how to control your classroom
and guide reading comprehension. Because I am a language concentration, I am always going to
need to guide comprehension of words and sentences. My students will always be battling
unfamiliar words, phrases, and sentences; therefore, reading comprehension strategies are
extremely important for me. I learned from Ms. P how to guide students to break up words and
sentences into familiar parts so they can draw conclusions about the true meaning of the text on
their own. I watched her develop relationships with her students while giving them the confidence
to share their thoughts and ideas so the whole class could compile their opinions and reach a full
understanding of the text. This experience was valuable for me because I will be able to apply these
strategies to not only teaching Spanish, but also teaching English as a second language. It has given
me more confidence in my facilitation abilities and has instilled optimism in me that I never had
before.

Skills and Insights Gained:
Through this experience, I learned a great deal about maintaining control of your students while also
guiding them to the optimum level of comprehension and providing them with the confidence to get
there themselves. I lucked out with the teacher that I was assigned. Ms. P was an incredible example
of a teacher that remained in control while also catering to her students needs and developing
relationships with them. I felt like everything she did was an opportunity for me to learn something.
Before I went to observe a middle school class at this particular middle school, I was clueless as to
how to remain in control of a rowdy group of kids. I watched Ms. P maintain control with two snaps
of her fingers and one stern look. That was all it took. These kids behaved like angels for her, but
they didnt do so out of fear, but rather out of respect. They all were happy to participate in readings
and lessons and they sought out her praise, which she gave when deserved. She would raise her
voice, but she wouldnt bark or scream like other teachers. The students loved her and her level of
control was effective.
As learning about how to remain in control was very helpful and interesting, I was most enlightened
by her approach to guiding reading comprehension. A lot of her students were ELLs or learning
disabled, so reading a simple article proved to be a difficult task. I have never before seen a teacher
use cues and guiding questions so effectively to facilitate discussion and make sure her students
arrived at the proper level of comprehension. She would ask questions that would call attention to
important information and guide students to find out the true meaning of the text. She would break
up the sentences into parts, and then if possible, break up the words even further into digestible
bites. She would prompt the students to recognize certain familiar suffixes and prefixes and roots to
show them that they can figure out the meaning of words and sentences on their own using prior
knowledge and context clues. She never gave them the answers; she would prompt them to come
up with them on their own.
After watching Ms. P do this during two classes, I decided to try the tactic myself with the student I
was assigned. Michelle is an ELL, so reading for her was very difficult. I broke up words with her the
way Ms. P did and tried to tie them to Spanish words that she already knew. I didnt tell her the
answers; I wanted to see if she could get it by herself, and with my prompts, many times she did. I
broke up the sentences and highlighted key terms and showed her how to figure out the meaning of
words she didnt know. I am very grateful to have observed Ms. P and learned the strategies of
teaching students to be better readers.
Lessons learned:
Through this experience, I have gained better knowledge that I can apply to my future career as a
language teacher. I teach English to Dominican immigrants twice a week in the Bronx, and since I
observed at this school I have been able to use this strategy even with my adult students. I ask them,
what does this word look like? Have you seen a word with the ending ment before? If nico means
there is only one, what do you think unique means? Ive also started to try to get them to recognize
the suffixes that are common so they can figure out words theyve never seen before. An example of
this is the suffix ness. If they recognize the suffix ness, then figuring out the meaning of words like
sadness or happiness isnt as difficult.
Through my experience at this school, I was taught how to break up words into easier parts for
students to understand, and now I can apply this to my practices not only in my volunteer English
class, but also to my Spanish classes in the future. Learning a second language is difficult, but
learning how to make connections between words youre learning and words you already know is a
big help. I am grateful for having been exposed to these strategies so I can now be a better guide for
my students through their learning.
Impact:
Before this semesters observations, I hadnt felt truly affected by my field experiences. I felt that
this time around I thought more critically and logically while observing, and made sure to recognize
repeating strategies that Ms. P used more than once. I wanted to gain strategies that would help me
to maintain control of a middle school classroom while also engaging them in the lesson. I noticed
how Ms. P facilitated reading comprehension right away. Because my content area is Spanish, and I
also have an interest in teaching English as a Second Language, I am going to be constantly
facilitating comprehension with my students, whether it be reading or listening. The strategies Ms. P
used to facilitate comprehension with her students were useful for informational text; however, I
can apply these strategies to all aspects of my content area. My students are going to be constantly
battling words and sentences they dont understand. Breaking them up and making them familiar
was a perfect way to engage the students in the lesson and help them to draw correct conclusions
on their own. Also, these strategies dont even have to be applied to just comprehending sentences.
Teachers can use guiding questions and the act of breaking something up into parts for
comprehension with concepts also. For example, teaching the concept of when to use the Imperfect
tense could be made easier by asking students guiding questions such as How do we express
ourselves in different ways in the past tense? or how do we say something that we did habitually
when we were younger? and so on. Because I got the chance to observe Ms. Pendergrass, I now
know how to better guide my students comprehension skills and my future students will definitely
feel the impact.