California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template

This article was really helpful in understanding what steps are needed to take in order to help students underand and comprehend what they are reading. This article started of by saying “prereading” is essential for students to comprehend what they read. I also think it’s incredibly important to get students to think about what they are going to be reading and the necessary techniques and tools needed to have a successful understanding of the reading. For instance, the article mentions students can be successful in their reading if they think about what they think the article could be about and why it might be important, and also what is the author’s purpose? Also, helping students make personal connections to their own experiences or understandings help students feel more connected and more likely to engage in the reading. I also found it important to help students with tricky vocab and teaching them the necessary tools to independently define vocabulary. These tools include practicing defining words by the contest clues within the text.

The part of the article I found most important to me was the Importance of summarizing in responding. I feel summarizing is important when it comes to reading because you’re able to reflect in your own words and list the important key concepts of what was read. Responding shows they have an actual understanding of what they read and are able to put their learning into own words. Responding also encourages students to think in more depth about what they read as well. In the article they mention a technique to help students reflect is to “Right open ended questions that can be used as a basis for a class discussion” which I found to be a really great tool because it would help students engage in their own discussion and learn from each other.