Kendrah's Chapter 6 Reading Response

In Chapter 6 an important idea came up. Taberski writes "who would want to read more, if it only meant always having to write about it?" and I think most children feel this way. Reading and writing in most classes have become a task more than something enjoyable. However, it needs to be done. At the beginnning of the chapter Taberski writes of her reading conference with Jasmin. For Jasmin it didn't feel like a reading conference because he got to retell a story that he actually enjoyed and it made discussing the story more enjoyable. Eventually this could lead to better writing for a child. The chapter continues by talking about procedures for asking children to retell texts. Usually when I sit down with a student I have him/her "tell me about" the story or text. I realize that I only need to record enough to assess his comprehension, and I determine how well the child understands the text read. The list continues on but from my running record experiences I've been also testing comprehension. I've found that some students just read it because they need to and are unable to retell. Others need help to retell and some students are well at retelling. So, how can I make every student retell a story he/she reads? That's my question. Well, Taberski states that gathering basic info. at the start of the year helps. Conducting 2-3 conferences to help the student find books he/she can read independently and also enjoys is very important. Taberski says that it is better to state a promt like "Tell me about the kind of books you like to read" instead of asking the child "what kind of books do you like to read?", which will enable the child to answer with a "I don't know" versus a more descriptive answer to a prompt question. Overall, I found that there are many types of different assessment tools that can be used in combination to help a child read better.