Chapter Reviews

The subtitle to this book, "Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12," is an accurate description of its purpose for teachers. Gallagher's conversational writing style and collection of examples and ideas provide teachers with tools for engaging students in reading texts of all types.

Chapter 1: Provides an outline of chapter topics.

Chapter 2: With a short story as an example, Gallagher introduces a model the leads the reader from surface understanding to using metaphors and reflection to develop a deeper understanding of the text. Similar to Keene's Mosaic of Thought, the suggestion is that a specific and intentional link of text to self will help students grasp ideas in the text beyond cursory plot comprehension. The chapter also begins Gallagher's introduction of "first draft reading"--the idea that one must read complex text more than once to get to the deeper understanding. The exercise with the short story is a practice of multiple draft reading.

Chapter 3: Gallagher presents several different strategies for framing the text and engaging the student reader. One example Gallagher utilizes to engage his students is the use of anticipation guides. He suggests a simple reflective piece which allows students to speculate on some of the major themes of the text before, during, and after the reading. The examples he provided were refreshingly simple and effective. See a sample anticipation guide and more comments on the Gallagher's Greatest Hits page.

Chapter 4: The main theme of this chapter is helping students develop strategies for focusing and reflecting on the text. It ranges from providing more traditional approaches (such as "fill in the gap" outlining and character charts) to more complex thinking, such as questioning and focused reading. Gallagher provides several questions for teachers to consider as they prepare students for "first draft reading." The questions involve giving students a focus, gauging whether students will cope with confusion, assessing whether students can monitor their comprehension, and knowing whether students have "fix-it strategies" for when they become confused. Aware of some teachers' tendencies to distribute a text and expect students to read it outright, these questions, with Gallagher's subsequent elaboration, help the teacher improve the way students interact with a text during a first read-through.

Chapter 5: This chapter is the core of Gallagher's approach: second draft reading. Like any other activity students wish to master, practice and repetition and focus are required. The author highlights several strategies to focus readers on particular tasks for second draft reading. Gallagher presents three key questions : What does it say? What does it mean? What does it matter? Using these questions, students will be drawn into the material more deeply. The chapter employs these questions as springboards for several different activities.  Gallagher's Greatest Hits for activity overview.

Chapter 6: This chapter outlines the importance of student collaboration as a means to improve comprehension. But rather than simply put students in groups and expect comprehension to magically improve, Gallagher stresses the overt strategies teachers need to use to teach collaboration. He pulls from Harvey Daniels's book Literature Circles, as well as the Palincsar and Brown "reciprocal reading model" to give teachers options for how they might structure groups with roles. Then, after reminding teachers that rules and accountability also need attention, he ends the chapter with ten practical ideas for prompting small groups to higher-level thinking.

Chapter 7: This chapter is dedicated to using metaphors to support deeper reading. The chapter provides a variety of tools for creating images and metaphors to supplement reading. The ideas are very simple. One sample is a brake pedal and a gas pedal to allow students to show what's holding a character back and what's propelling her forward. Another is to imagine a character's wallet, purse or locker, and to name what would be in it and why.

Gallagher suggests that any use of metaphor deepens thinking and challenges students to see beyond the text. He warns that any visual metaphor graphic organizers will not be effective if they are used as "worksheets"; rather, students must see them as a tool for deeper reflection For that reason, he suggets letting students design their own graphic organizers to allow them the freedom of creating their own metaphors.

Chapter 8: Gallagher uses this chapter to discuss motivational factors, i.e., how can teachers GET students to read? He urges teachers NOT to try to "sell" a book on one of the two "stock" answers: a) because it's a classic, b) because we need to study the author's craft. Some students' aversion to reading is demonstrated in the popular questions "why THIS book," and "why be a READER at all?" Gallagher also uses this chapter to offer practical strategies for helping students RECOGNIZE THE BENEFITS of reading and LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE IN MEANINGFUL REFLECTION about what they read. BENEFITS: better vocabulary, better writing, better prepared for college, for the work world, for earning, and more. REFLECTIONS: Specific examples from Gallagher  

Chapter 9: Gallahger begins this chapter by acknowledging the elephant in the room, i.e., standardized testing. If our curriculum needs to be "set aside for a few weeks so we can prepare for the state exams," we need to examine the rigor of the curriculum. We need to be literacy teachers. His point broadens to include what he says may "trouble" some teachers: We need to prepare students to READ THE WORLD. Gallagher concludes the chapter by asking teachers to face this reality:  If we don't feel we have time in our curriculum to teach kids to READ THE WORLD,  who will teach them?

Chapter 10: Gallagher ends this handbook by coming back to the BIG PICTURE. What QUESTIONS do we need to measure ourselves by in order to know if we are artfully developing and effectively delivering DEEPER READING LESSONS?

The journey through this final chapter leads the reader back through a well-spelled-out example (using a "My Turn" column from Newsweek) that takes the reader through the STEPS of a deeper reading lesson one more time.

This chapter is well done. Gallagher ends the book by reminding teachers that...

(a) the assessments we use with students MUST be planned BEFORE the unit is taught

(b) the level of thinking expected of the students is directed by the questions WE ask them

(c) if we overteach (tell them everything they should "find" in the reading) our students come to rely upon us too much

(d) "assigning" deep reading isn't the same thing as "teaching" deep reading

(e)  teachers are ARTISTS -  teachers need to plan for the finished product in a reading lesson

(f)   teachers need to recognize that reading comprehension is complicated...

*READING COMPREHENSION...(cited in Gallagher's Deeper Reading, based upon the work of Bartoli and Botel, 1988.)

+ involves prior knowledge

+ requires predicting, determining meaning, reflecting

+ is affected by motivation/ownership/self-esteem

+ is governed by a specific context and is dependent on social interaction