Nothing as Certain as Change--Keene Chapter 7

Comprehension and understanding goes beyond simply just recalling the events of a story, telling who the main characters are, or being able to answer simple questions about a given story.  As Keene mentions in Chapter 7 of  To Understand, "Understanding is an outcome that can be manipulated, altered, and improved by using comprehension strategies (Keene 171)."  Understanding is not only being able to comprehend what you read, but understanding is also being able to see how that book changed your thinking in some way shape or form.

Thinking out loud is one of the best strategies to promote understanding (Keene 168).  When you model for your students by thinking out loud they are able to generate ideas and see what their thinking should be like or emulate.  However, when I think out loud many of my first grade students like to repeat my given answers or their classmates answer, which is a problem that Keene encountered as well.  As Keene mentioned in the previous chapter some students are afraid to take risks and they will only say what they think the teacher would want them or expect them to say.  However, if the students continue to just repeat what I said they really will not be comprehending or understanding.  The process of understanding means challenging and propelling your thinking forward.  The only way you can truly understand is if you rethink what you already thought you knew.  Students need to change  and challenging their thinking in order to comprehend at an even greater dimension (Keene 167). 

I think that it is very important the Keene brings up expository texts as opposed to narrative texts.  A lot of the time teachers promote and use a lot of narrative texts in their classrooms.  Expository texts sort of get left on the back burner and are not used nearly as much as narratives.  Keene points out that it is important to expose students to equal amounts of narrative and expository texts.  Exposure  and consistency to both will allow students to become better readers and writers in each style.  Students will be well versed in both the structure of expository and narrative texts, which makes it easier to understand the given text.

Favorite quote from this  chapter -- "Those who live interesting lives outside of school will bring the most to their students (Keene 192)."