Comprehension

What does comprehension mean?...well I would say it means the understanding of something or the ability to retain information. The problem with comprehension is that as teachers we do not always know whether our students are retaining information from the plain-old-boring text books everyone loves! Some students don't always comprehend from textbooks the best. It may take diaries, journals, or other forms of reading material to capture the attention of some students. I know that I am a student who does not comprehend well through strictly text, I find it unbelievably boring and redundant. I enjoy the true stories told by the people themselves through journal entries or an autobiography. Not all students learn the same way and it is our job as educators to reach out and find the best way everyone of our students learn. Making different resources avalible for every student to work at his/her best!

Sometime within the past couple classes we discussed how making your students raise their hands when they have finished may make them feeled a bit rushed. The other day this past week in one of my classes we had to do a quick assignment about a an article we just read. The professor said that everyone will speak about their answers when we were finished. I was already nervous about finding the exact answer we were suppose to have found when I thought about being the last one to raise my hand...forget about it! I was too focused on not being the last one to raise my hand...in fear that the other students who found the answer quickly would think I was dumb! I settled for an answer that may or may not have been the right one just to raise my hand because I feared being judged by my fellow peers. I thought about what we were discussing in class and how this type of activity may hinder your students from performing at their best ablilies. This is exactly what it did to me...I was unable to find the correct answer and feel confident because I felt - - stressed and rushed! I def. feel that students may not understand because they are too concerned on not being last when they should be focusing on finding the correct information. Through my experience I feel that other ways can be used to get kids to be active and participate....rather than have them feel pressured and not quite understanding the assignment they are suppose to be grasping. It didn't make me feel okay and I was a college student...I couldn't imagine how it would make middle schoolers/highschoolers feel when they are still trying to find out who they really are and trying to be accepted amist a judgemental crowd involving their peers.