Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Colunmist EdNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University

1) You have recently written a book entitled " The Master Teacher Series: Reading Comprehension". What led you to write this book?

When I started doing the research for this book, I found so many simple effective reading comprehension strategies that I thought, hey, if I knew about these, I would try them.And when I read studies that showed student comprehension gains of between 15 and 100 percent when these strategies were taught, I thought other teachers may want to try them as well.

2) Why do some children have trouble with comprehension?

Most children don't know and see all the things capable readers do to understand text, because reading is private and the strategies people employ are invisible.

When teachers make expert readers' thinking processes public to students, a light bulb goes off.Students realize that reading is an active not passive process.

Then, after teachers model various strategies and assign students to use them, students understand that reading is about engaging with the text, thinking, and working not putting your feet up and tuning out.

3) Why do some teachers have trouble teaching reading comprehension?

I don't think teachers have trouble teaching reading comprehension.I just think that they don't have concrete practical examples for how to do so.

Many teachers read recommendations like teach your students to monitor their comprehension or teach them to make connections or teach them to generate questions.

The problem is that these general ideas don't show one how to do this.In my book we teach strategies step-by-step and include visual lesson storyboards so teachers can see how the strategy looks.

4) You also have a series of videos with teachers demonstrating various strategies. What prompted you to put these strategies on video? Where can teachers procure these videos?

For me, to learn something well, I like to read about it and then see several examples.I think the videos provide another layer of learning support.

We videotaped wonderful teachers from all over the country teaching these strategies.

Some were National Teachers of the Year, some Milken Educators, some USA Today Teachers and some we identified because of the large achievement gains they produced.

The book and DVDs can be purchased from www.teachingdoctors.com.

5) Much of your work stems from Dolores Durkin's seminal work. What did she find and is it still applicable today?

Durkin's study inspired the book, but we looked at hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, and books to find the strategies that are explained.

What Durkin found when she observed upper elementary classrooms for 4,500 minutes of language arts instruction was only 20 minutes was spent on comprehension instruction.

6) Much has been said about " scientifically proven reading comprehension strategies" Can we really take the results from highly controlled, experimental conditions and apply them to the chaos that often is occurring in the schools?

Almost all of the strategies referenced in my book were tested in classrooms not laboratory settings.Half of the strategies (the ones we videotaped) were taught by master teachers in their classrooms. Moreover, the book is written so a teacher can read a strategy in 5 minutes, watch a 7-minute video example, and try out the strategy the next day.So, I think, yes, teachers can apply scientifically proven strategies in their classrooms.

7) Teachers today are teaching kids who spend a lot of time watching t.v. and playing video games. What must parents do to help with the problem of reading comprehension?

Several studies show that too much tv is not good for reading achievement, and a recent report related 2 or more hours a day of television viewing to an increased likelihood of Attention Deficit Disorder.

TV in moderation and increased reading for pleasure (magazines, comics, Internet, novels, etc.) is what I'd recommend for parents to aim for with their kids.

8) What are some of the strategies and tactics that would be found in your book or videos?

Because there are over 30 strategies and they are presented in a highly visual format, I think that the best way to answer this question is to let teachers see the strategies for themselves.Teachers can go to www.teachingdoctors.com to view sample chapters and videos.