Chapter 3

“The reflective diagnostic teacher considers and selects among instructional alternatives and, at the same time, anticipates the consequences of differing decisions on student learning. This reflection helps teachers know why they teach and facilitates their explanation to others” P 44

I think of reflecting as something to do after teaching. I was always taught to reflect on what went good, and what needed to be thrown out or what needed to be improved on. They talk about refection as something to do before and while planning. This is a different way of thinking for me. I do typically consider my students their possible responses, needs and interests but never though of it as reflecting. I always thought of writing things in a notebook after the fact, not before I always though of that process as just planning.

“When students have success, they tend to repeat the literate activity. Obviously, success is a powerful motivating factor.” P 47

This year one of my students was tested for learning disabilities. It was noted that she had previously struggled in reading and had attended a learning center in elementary school. She has shown some improvement in her reading abilities and knows it. I can see how having made progress that she now actually enjoys reading. She often comes up to me and shows me the books that she is reading and often times I share with her what I am reading or if I had already read the books that she has chosen.


“When students are unsure of a response, she asks them what they know so far about the story. Then she asks them to explain how they came to that conclusion. From this information, the teacher develops leading questions or examples what will guide the students’ interpretation.” P 48

I love this technique! I do this with my students when they ask for help on their math homework. I ask them what they think the answer is or how they think they should attempt the problem. Them I work on how they know that or what makes them think that’s what they should try. From there I don’t give them answers I ask them questions. From theses questions they develop meaning and understanding by making connections about things they already know. (I had a college professor that did this to us all the time, he never answered your questions, just asked you a different one.

“Not only does the diagnostic teacher direct the learning process by explaining the steps and guiding the practice, but she also gives students ownership of their learning by encouraging them to think about their thinking.” P 51

I find that student have a difficult time with metacognition. They don’t want to think about what they time that just want to know the answer. Especially in math class, a lot of students think this is the answer, done! But that is not the case. They need to think and process the information to be able to understand and develop the correct process and answer. Students have a hard time with multiple step problems for this reason. They want the answer to be there they do not want to have to think about what they know and how to develop a method to solve it.


“They read as if they believe that getting every word right is reading.” P 53

A student came to me last week and asked if I would sign the book completion sheet for one of her books. (They need to read 25 this year for reading class) She asked me because she often stays after with me and I had seen her read it. Before I would sign it I asked her to tell me a little about it. She could tell me what happened in the beginning and the middle but had no memory of the end. I told her to read read the last two chapters to refresh her memory. So she went back and did, but she couldn’t; tell anything about it because she had only read the words, not the story. Frustrated with her I told her to take the book home that night and really read the story for meaning and to come see me in the morning to tell me what she had figured out about the end of the book, then I would sign her slip. I am proud to say that she did reread it and we had a brief discussion the next morning about the events that occurred. Even better later that day we had our Page Turners Competing and because she re-read and understood she was able to correctly answer questions about the end of the book leading our team to 2nd place!

Chapters One and Two

“Active readers monitor their understanding to see if it makes sense (Alexander & Jetton, 2000).”



I find that students are often in such a hurry to get things done that they do not check to see if the answer makes sense in the context of the problem. On the last math test my students took I noticed half of their responses did not even make sense based on the question they were asked. I think they were in such a hurry to get done with they test they rushed through the problems especially the word problems and gave incorrect answers.







(On open ended and non-literal questions) “This type of questioning required her to think in a different way. She was used to reading the text and answering questions that were directly found in the text.” P19



I find that if the textbook does not say the exact answer, then students get frustrated and most of the time they gave up. I am not sure if they are just used to that kind of thinking or if they are lazy. The students that I work with I find are a little bit on the lazy side, others work their but off and still struggle sometimes. They don’t always want to apply their knowledge, just copy it from somewhere.





“Personal response lets students talk freely about their reactions, thoughts, and feelings about the text they have read. When giving a response, the student cannot be wrong, …” P19



I recently gave students a question that asked them what they think and in each class at least 5 students asked me for help. My reply I cannot tell you what you think, you need to think about it and tell me what it is you are thinking. They did not like this kind of questioning even though there was no wrong answer.



Therefore, if a teacher prompts the student to clarify a response or asks the student to search the text, he influences comprehension and changes the original task demand. This change often increases comprehension.” P 21



The reading lab teacher that I work with does this with her classes. I was in one of her classes and saw how she had students work in pairs to answer test comprehension questions. They look at one question at a time and compared answers, and then she asked the groups (only 2 of them) where they found the answer. This made students go back and actually find the answer, which made them, better comprehend their answers.





“Because each text format if organized differently, readers do not have the same experiences with them, thus increasing the variability of their performance (Pearson & Camperell, 1994).” P 23



I started the year off with a scavenger hunt in their new math textbook. I understand that not all of the students have the same experiences with math books, especially since they are coming from two different elementary schools. I also have found that they forgot about all of the things that they book can help them do. Before the chapter tests I remind them that there is section in the back that highlights each different part of the chapter by giving examples and problems for them to try. I have also recently had two students discover the homework help that is available online, even thought this is one of the things that I showed them in the begging of