In ation, we are told that reading and writing for understanding are of paramount importance. We teach students to decode words, pronounce them accurately, and read them fluently. We ask numerous questions about books, and teach strategies like they were going out of style…all in the name of comprehension.

The challenge this week for myself and the Midwest Literacy Institute participants was this:

• Are we servicing what we sell?
• Is comprehension truly the cornerstone of our work?
• And most importantly, do our kids know comprehension is why we do what we do?

The descriptors and definitions of what comprehension fill their desks and line our hallways. Unfortunately, here is what rings loud and clear in far too many of our schools and classrooms.

You have "comprehended" when you can:
1. Answer your teacher’s questions
2. Retell the story
3. Define important vocabulary terms
4. Complete a graphic organizer or "extension" activity"

Too often our instruction, assessments, and classroom discussions favor the notion that comprehension as a commodity focusing on carrying away or measuring some amount of knowledge or attribute produced from a reading event rather than an active, meaning making process of understanding the world.

So my question to you, friends, is this:
Is this what it really means to be a reader in the 21st Century?