The third-graders in my classroom
could read the words, but a small group
of them seemed to comprehend little of
what they read and were unable to pass
their reading comprehension tests. Even
when they knew the meaning of the specific
words, they did not use that knowledge
to help them make sense of the story.
I did not understand how the children
were formatting and structuring the information
from the stories they read. The established
reading curriculum for my class
provided limited small group or one-onone
teaching time, few lessons with a focus
on comprehension, and no opportunities
for concrete representations.