Reading as Thinking strategy

Chapter Two provides a great deal of information about reading as a thinking strategy.  I think the authors clearly state a valid point when they say, “reading is not an accumulation of subskills, but a complex and specialized form of thinking” (p. 33).  They further state, “Learning to read is a much deeper, broader, and more complex cognitive task” (p. 33).  It’s very important that children understand what they are reading.  They need to be able to make connections as they read.  I often get my students to stop and evaluate what they have read.  I’ll ask them questions about what’s going on, why it’s happening, and I'll get them to make predictions. By doing this, they are becoming active in their reading and practicing important reading and thinking strategies. 

We also discuss author’s purpose a lot.  (Author’s Purpose is “Easy as PIE” – Persuade, Inform, and Entertain.) This gives the students an opportunity to figure out why the author wrote the story for his/her audience.  Another strategy I use in my classroom is having the children connect things to their personal lives.  For example, one of our stories from our Reading textbook was about jellyfish.  I asked the class who had seen a jellyfish before and if they had, they shared the information about it with the class.  I recorded the information on a bubble map.  We watched a video on United Streaming about sea creatures after reading our story, and I made sure to emphasize the parts about jellyfish.  We also completed a fact/opinion chart on jellyfish.  All of these lessons allowed the children to form connections from their everyday lives to our reading story.  They became more involved and active in the text because of all of the teaching styles/strategies incorporated in the lesson.  I feel that students benefit from reading when they are using a thinking strategy.  It allows them to clearly comprehend what they are reading, and it sets a purpose for their reading.