The article titled, Supporting Beginning Readers, discusses a classroom strategy that I myself was taught in school; Read, Stop, Think, Ask, Connect. This was helpful to me because given the density, at times, I would read something, finish, then not have any idea what the main idea was or what the author was trying to tell me. My teachers would constantly have us reread the text, think about it, ask ourselves questions, then make three connections of text to self, text to text, and text to world. At the time it seemed like an annoying and tedious process but now as an adult, I see how that helped me develop more reading comprehension skills and I will definitely incorporate that into the classroom as a future teacher.
Using visual aids such as photography is a great use for helping students develop their literacy skills. Without even any context, showing students a picture of something can prompt them to critical think and ask questions and make their own inferences. I think that the use of photography should be incorporated more into classrooms because it can be very beneficial. As the article mentioned, it can help students with their vocabulary and stated an example of a teacher displaying a photo of a sedimentary rock and a student identifying it. After that, the teacher asks what the student sees that makes them think that so then the student begins to list some characteristics they observed. It’s a simple yet thought provoking approach that should be utilized more in the classroom.
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