Guiding Students
To guide students so that they can understand what they are reading at a deep level will require systematic,, explicit, authentic, and lively instruction (S.E.A.L.) over a significant period of time, from one to two semesters depending on the student's skills and motivation and the teacher's knowledge and time commitment. Given grade appropriate texts, to successfully understand, students will need to know what each of the 6 major reading comprehension tasks entails, will need to have at least one effective strategy for each task that they can apply independently, and will need to be able to integate this knowledge and these strategies.
S.E.A.L. stands for:
Systematic: Carefully moving students from one step to the next, starting with "where the student is" and systematically working toward the final goal: in this case, reading and understanding grade appropriate texts at a deep level. For more detail on sequencing instruction, click on Phases of Learning and/or go to the General Strategy Learning Plan page.
Explicit: Making sure that the student understands what the task is/tasks are and how to accomplish it/them with an appropriate stratey. This will entail students understanding the vocabulary of learning to read with comprehension, including words like strategy, knowledge-base, elaboration, cuing, etc.
Authentic: Using materials that students recognize as relevant to their school lives and beyond. Formulating tasks in such a way as to allow the student to see when and where what they are learning is applicable and valuable.
Lively: Ensuring that the student plays an equal, if not leading, role in learning decisions and effort. This will entail helping students learn to be meta-cognitive so that they can "manage" their own learning.