Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary GradesDebbie Miller

Debbie Miller’s book, Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary

Grades, (2002) outlines a reading program that is based in an exploration of the cognitive tools

young children need to read with comprehension (viii). The book defines and describes the

thinking processes a young child needs to understand reading material and introduces the

“Readers’ Workshop” as a vehicle for directly teaching and fostering these processes in the

primary grades.

Miller first argues that young children can in fact read strategically, be metacognitive

about their reading, express their thought processes, and understand and discuss their ideas on a

deep level. Indeed, much of Miller’s work is based on the research of Pearson, Dole, Duffy, and

Roehler (1992). The essential question answered by this research is “what do ‘good’ readers

do?” Their findings indicated that “thoughtful, proficient readers” use the following strategies to

construct meaning as they read:

• “Activating relevant, prior knowledge (schema) before, during, and after reading text.

• Creating visual and other sensory images from text during and after reading.

• Drawing inferences from text to form conclusions, make critical judgments, and create

unique interpretations.

• Asking questions of themselves, the authors, and the texts they read.

• Determining the most important ideas and themes in a text.

• Synthesizing what they read” (8).

Miller’s approach to teaching literacy is based on developing these skills, and mirrors her

overall philosophy of teaching. As she writes, “Gradually releasing responsibility to children as

they gain expertise, teaching a few strategies of great consequence in depth over time, and giving

children the gifts of time, choice, response, community, and structure guide my work...” (6).

From these three principles, the Readers’ Workshop emerges. As Miller writes, “Structured

around a mini-lesson (15-20 minutes), a large block of time to read, respond, and confer (45-50

minutes), and a time to share (15-20 minutes), the readers’ workshop format provides a

framework for both strategy instruction and the gradual release of responsibility” (7).

The mini-lessons allow teachers the opportunity to directly teach the strategies of skilled

readers. The majority of Miller’s book outlines lessons she has conducted on the strategies

described by the 1992 research listed above. The lessons build on each other and progress along

with the school year, and are also integrated with the task of building a classroom community.

Miller argues that an essential component of any Readers’ Workshop is a real community, and

that teachers must invest the time upfront to “build genuine relationships, establish mutual trust,

and create working literate environments” (17).

One aspect of Miller’s book is the argument that young learners can in fact be taught

comprehension strategies, and that teachers need not focus solely on phonemic awareness and

phonics (although these should also be a part of any balanced literacy program). She suggests

that although not every child who enters first grade is actually reading, teachers can still develop

students’ comprehension strategies. Therefore, Miller offers two examples of mini-lessons to

conduct at the beginning of the school year.

When students begin first grade in September, Miller focuses on the observable actions

that readers do. Children construct their own lists of their own personal observations, comprised

of everything from “talking about books and ideas” to “using a bookmark” (30). Students also

observe the different places people read and the various texts people read. This, Miller argues,

conveys to children that reading takes many forms and that children too can read, they only need

to be shown how.

Miller also recommends beginning the year with poetry, music, and songbooks. She notes

that many songs are already familiar to students, serve to introduce students to the rhythm and

patterns of language, and allow opportunities for students to expand on and build lists of word

that are phonetically related to an “anchor” word taken from a poem or song.

As the year progresses, students spend more time reading independently. Miller leads

mini-lessons on:

• Engaging schema: Making different kinds of connections, such as text-to-text, text-to-self,

and text-to-world connections, and deciding which connections are meaningful and

relevant.

• Making inferences: Drawing conclusions and forming individual interpretations about a

particular text (107).

• Digging deeper: Using book clubs to get students to “practice and learn the art of

elaboration” (95).

• Asking questions: Asking questions before, during, and after reading to clarify reading,

make predictions about unread text, or ruminate on rhetorical questions inspired by the

text (126).

• Synthesizing material: Miller defines synthesis as retelling important points of a text in a

sensible way, without overtelling (163). Students then extend their thinking about the

text and make general statements about universal themes. Miller recommends using fables

or fairy tales to teach this strategy.

Miller offers suggestions for literature in teaching the lessons and outlines the manner in

which she conducted the lessons. One example is a lesson on activating schema through making

“text-to-text connections” (63). Miller chose the books Amazing Grace and Oliver Buttons is a

Sissy to illustrate the strategy of comparing two texts and using prior knowledge of one text to

predict the outcome of a second text.

A second important mini-lesson is the one dealing with book selections. Miller writes,

“Because my goal is for children to apply strategies for decoding and constructing meaning

independently, it now becomes essential that most of their books be at their instructional level--

’just right’” (40). The second piece of the Readers’ Workshop is a large block of time to practice

the skills taught during the mini-lesson, but for this time to be meaningful and productive,

students must be reading at the instructional or independent level. In addition to considering

readability, however, Miller encourages her students to take account of content, schema,

motivation, and variety (41). If students are choosing from a wide spectrum of books about

which they have prior knowledge and are interested in, they will be more likely to be engaged in

the workshop for 45 minutes.

Another component crucial to the Readers’ Workshop is conferring. Miller argues that

conferring is especially important at the beginning of the year, when many children are not yet

reading. Miller writes, “Although learning to read and comprehend books is our goal, working

with books helps us get there and introduces children to the real world of reading” (33).

Conferring is a wonderful manner in which teachers can simultaneously build a child’s confidence

with regard to reading and learn about him or her as a reader. It is also a way to ascertain whether

students are utilizing the strategies taught in the mini-lessons, or to learn new ideas from students

themselves.

Sharing is the final element of the structure of the Readers’ Workshop. First, sharing their

journeys as readers gives students the opportunity to “practice oral language and the civility of

conversation” (36). Second, sharing is a way to encourage students’ reflectiveness about their

reading, to share ideas and strategies that are helpful to readers, and to bring closure to the

workshop by revisiting the content of the mini-lesson.

Reading with Meaning is one example of a whole-language approach to teaching literacy,

and one that is particularly focused on teaching some of the “big five” themes in reading:

comprehension, and to a lesser extent, vocabulary and fluency. Its emphasis is not so much on

phonemic awareness and phonics; however, the flexible nature of the Readers’ Workshop would

allow for integration of these themes into the classroom. I believe that it is essential for any

teacher of reading to address all aspects of literacy, and I appreciated Miller’s model of the

Readers’ Workshop primarily because it is so flexible and would allow me to weave everything

from phonics to comprehension and appreciation into my literacy teaching using well-written,

authentic children’s literature.

Works Cited

Miller, Debbie. Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades.

Stenhouse Publishers, 2002.