Chapter 9

I have a question. On the second page of the chapter, Beers essentially says that vocab tests are no good. Instead, she says that teachers should do more informal assessments like a jeopardy or bingo game to see who remembers most. Don't teachers have to give a certain amount of tests, or no?
Through reading this chapter, I realize how frequently I tell my own students just to "use context clues" as if they have any idea how to do that without the background and knowledge acquired previously. However, I guess I have another question. How much grammar (such a prefixes and suffixes) will I need to be teaching to my students? Does that just depend on the type of class I get a job working with?
Ah hah! Dr. Pytash, every week, uses the "read and tease" technique on us! (198) She entices us to read the full novel by reading an excerpt before class. I wonder if it would take too  long to do that in class at a high school. Maybe I could do that or a think-aloud once a week, like perhaps on Fridays to settle kids down at the beginning of class. Actually, that's just what I thought about the two- or five- minute mysteries that Beers brought up in the last chapter.

Chapter 8

Ahh! Now we're getting to delve into ideas about what to do after the reader is already confused. If students simply forget or are too concerned with the actual reading to use prereading strategies, these will help them make sense of their confusion. Again, the chapter clearly defines what students will gain from these strategies.
Beers says, "I teach scales by modeling one for students" (143). Again we see the importance of modeling. This is the tenth time, at least, that we've read about how much impact modeling can have on students' understanding. I'm beginning to realize the importance! ;]
Also, I absolutely love the Questions and Answers segment of the chapters. This is mostly because the questions are all asked by teachers, not students. This is stuff that I want, and need, to know as one who'll be utilizing these techniques.
I love the fact that students are required to logically defend their positions from the scales using citable, credible information. They can't just say, "He was brave" without backing it up.
I feel like Beers is beginning to really get into the nitty-gritty of how we're to teach our students. Also, interestingly, I was at Firestone High School the other day, and the teacher of one of the English classes was actually teaching his students the very same techniques we're learning about in this class.

Chapter 7

I like the fact that this chapter specifically points out what the strategies we're learning will do for our students. They are the most important people in the classroom, and this chapter helped to solidify the need for humility within the classroom. As a teacher, I'll have authority over my students, but, as in totally expected and natural, most people do not want to go above and beyond when they do not feel valued in the first place. So, I'm glad that these strategies will serve the greater good here in helping the students to visualize, predict, question, and clarify.
I will totally be keeping this book to copy handouts from. The rules for "Say Something" are clear and I think students will really benefit from having direct examples of ways to begin their "Say Something" statements. It's just a little bit of scaffolding that students may or may not need, but I can certainly see how it might be helpful.
There are such great ideas in this text! I'm totally going to use the rereading strategies this weekend in my tutoring session. Give "students a short text, and [ask] them to reread it three times...ask them to reate their understanding of this text on a scale of 1-10 after each reading" (113). This is so important, because, so many times, struggling readers don't see the use in rereading. However, fluent readers recognize it as vital to understanding text, which they see as their responsibility.

Chapter 5

I'm really glad that this chapter slows down the process of thinking aloud. Beers breaks down which parts of a text are the most vital to focus on. I was particularly suprised (though totally unsure of why I hadn't noticed) that one of the most important clues when making inferences from text lie in the pronouns.
I assumed that the class which struggles with comprehension would have a difficult time with tinferencing. However, I guess I really didn't expect that the class of students who were not struggling readers would gather so much information. Although it probably wasn't the case, they reasoned that the "he" might've even been a son trying to buy his mother the movie tickets. I have to assume that this extensive deduction was the results of superior modeling. So, in this way, Beers reitterates just how very important it is to really  model just exactly how students will have to be doing their work. The onus is on the instructor to model well so that his or her students can perform well.
One awesome idea Beers presents is to cut out cartoons, project them for the class, and help make inferences based on why we find them funny. These are usually political cartoons. Three books of short stories I really want to use in my classroom are Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald Sobol, Five-Minute Mysteries, and Even More Five-Minute Mysteries, both by Ken Weber. Beers proposed that teachers could begin class periods with one of these short stories to get students focused.