Text Talk

For the record, every time I wrote something down that I wanted to say about this article it was stated in the next paragraph. Needless to say, I think they covered this topic pretty well. Growing up, I had a really hard time with comprehension and I think it had a lot to do with popcorn reading and the setting of the classroom in general. If there are people who are not reading fluently, I cannot for the life of me listen, much less understand the story. Also, if people are in the room looking around or talking I pay more attention to them than anything. With that being said, the only reason I started to develop comprehension skills and enjoy reading has a lot to do with a teacher who read aloud to me. We were in a much smaller group setting in a library and the way she read was mesmerizing the way she made the characters come to life. Stories made much more sense when she read and her questions brought out the highlighted portions of the text in order for me to stay on track with the story.

What I'm getting at is that I think reading aloud is an amazing way to get students to comprehend. This way students have a model for fluent reading as well as what questions to ask yourself and what things you should notice. Students can learn that the pictures help paint the story for visual remembrance, but they do not give the whole story and are only supported by the text. For read-alouds to be effective, the right questions need to be asked. Limits need to be pushed to think critically and formulate new questions. Reading above the level of the students also helps with vocabulary. Sometimes if I hear someone read aloud a word in a sentence that I do not know the meaning of I understand it better. I definitely think that "text talk" is beneficial for reading comprehension and helps students enjoy reading,

I noticed that a Text Talk strategy included withholding pictures after the student understand what is read. Why exactly is that? (I read about it but I just don't get it) I just think that pictures help with comprehension so much because I am a visual learners.

Also, I wonder how far to go regarding reading above reading level?