Reading Comprehension

At my main placement as a class we are reading The Cay, in which my master teacher uses think alouds very effectively. She has students use thinkmarks which is similar to the sticky notes or note cards that Routman talks about. As students read they write on their thinkmark if they have a connection to what they just read, a question, prediction, inference or any other thoughts that help students comprehend the story better. The first four chapters my master teacher has been modeling and doing it with students, basically doing the demonstration and shared demonstration of the optimal learning model. I appreciate this technique the most because we have many ELL students as well as behavior disabilities in our class. The combination of demonstration and shared demonstration really helps ALL students comprehend what is happening in the book.

Overall I think Routman would like what my teacher is doing, as once they are done with the first four chapters students then read on their own but can listen to the story on tape while they read. Once the first four chapters are done the teacher uses literacy circles as a way to scaffold to help students and check for comprehension. As this seems to move to the guided practice and independent practice part of the optimal learning model I think Routman would appreciate the transition and level of differentiation that occurs with reading comprehension this way.

Overall Cooper may still have some mixed feelings. My master teacher does use implicit modeling and explicit modeling but I am not sure to what extent Cooper would like the structure that she has developed. Cooper makes a statement that when modeling, most will be implicit. I think my master teacher found a way to make her modeling both explicit and implicit but more on the explicit (think aloud) modeling as she is directly "showing and talking with students about what is being modeled" (Cooper 2007 p. 157). When my teacher transitions to literacy circles would this then be considered part of Cooper's implicit modeling? I think so as students are now more independent but the teacher is not modeling to them unless perhaps they are in their literacy circles for discussions. I think then, the implicit modeling according to Cooper would only be prevalent when students are in their literacy circles. I wonder what Cooper would think about the other students working independently as one could argue that neither implicit or explicit modeling is occurring at that point.