Check for Understanding- Frey and Fisher

One of the things that stood out to me in this week's articles was in the Frey and Fisher article "Identifying Instructional Moves During Guided Reading."  I particularly liked the questioning to check understanding part of the article.  For me I always thought checking for understanding just meant talking about the text and seeing if they students were grasping what it was about. However, the article points out that there is 6 different types of questions teachers should be asking to check to see if students are understanding what they are reading.  I really like table 2 that was included in the article and hope to incorporate it into my portfolio- it breaks down the 6 types of questions (Elicitation, elaboration, clarification, divergent, heuristic, inventive).  I really liked the inventive questions- it allows for students to use what they know from the text to be more creative and think outside the box.  I think this type of question would be great to use is a writing center because students could take what they have read and go even further with it.

Assessment

For this weeks articles I read the two Cunningham and Allington articles.  First, I found the information on how to determine reading level very insightful! I never really gave much thought to how I would assess student's reading level- guess I just assumed tests and exams would cover it.... man I was wrong!!  I will definitely have to keep these strategies with me (on page 207)

I also really enjoyed the part in chapter 11 about the struggling older student tutoring the younger struggling reader. I think this is a fantastic idea because sometimes students need to work with other students because they can give a different point of view, one that the other student might understand. I know for me just talking to another student can help me better understand something when I haven't the fainted idea when the teacher is talking to me :) I think having the older student help the younger student with reading is a great way for the older student to practice using any strategies they have learned when reading!