Week 13

                As Buehl writes in chapter three, there is a match made between authors and readers. When readers are a good match for the authors, the readers understand what the author is trying to communicate; this product is called comprehension. We as teachers, in order to produce effective readers must first educate the students about the topics that they will be reading. While students may have what Buehl called topic knowledge, teachers must construct the domain knowledge. Having topic knowledge may able the students the ability to read about a subject, having the domain knowledge will boost comprehension and create deeper levels of thinking. Buehl also writes about how science education is a continuous flow of learning. Science is a field where new discoveries, theories and studies are created daily. Teachers should introduce new ideas then use literature to scaffold the concepts and repeat.

                In chapter four, Buehl considers what practices should happen before reading specific literature. Mostly importantly Buehl says classroom instruction should change from first reading then discussing to discussion, then reading followed by more discussion. Rather than reading in order to build knowledge, students should build knowledge so that they may be able to further the knowledge in literature. Lastly, Buehl’s Comprehension Checkdown provides helpful steps for reading disciplinary texts. Preparing students to read literature with these procedures in mind could provide great steps in comprehension and learning. The check list focuses on understanding what the reader knows then adding inquiry thought to the literature.