Teaching Explicitly

When teachers use explicit language strategies--I mean, really share in adult language what is going on in their heads as they read and think--it helps students catch on.  Whether the teacher is talking about making connections with a text (text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world) or helping them learn vocabulary, getting down to the nitty-gritty and authentically modeling and sharing makes it possible for students to do the same. In chapter 5 of her book Reading with Meaning:  Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, Debbie Miller relates her struggles and successes with teaching kids how to access their schemas (the background knowledge they have available to them) as they read and think; she shares how every year it's a struggle and she's not sure they'll make it this time around...but they always do.  From simple connections like, "...my cousin's name is Eve" (p. 59) to more sophisticated ones such as being lost in a mall and the feelings associated with that (pp. 60-61), her students grow in their understanding of what it means to make solid connections to the themes and emotions within a text, and in their ability to discuss them.  But Miller’s careful preparation and explicit modeling go a very long way toward making these things possible.

On a somewhat related note, Dr. Susan Neuman talks about “Using Categories to Teach Vocabulary to Preschoolers,” and how creating themed vocab lists around a certain topic is useful not only for vocab-retention itself, but also for the discussions that can happen because of the categories.  For instance, she talks about how you can build the category of “fruit” from a discussion about apples, and you can incorporate into that a talk about how fruit is healthy and what it does for your body.  Neuman also points out that when doing this, you can use category games like BINGO or Jeopardy! to model strategies for organizing words, as well as to have some fun in your classroom.  Finally, a point where Neuman and Miller really agree is on their stress of adult-level conversation with kids:  without exposure to the words and patterns of speech that adults use, kids can’t pick up on them, which only holds them back.  So it’s vital to not only use sophisticated language with kids, but to explicitly express what it means and how concepts and strategies can be applied.