Practice with Comprehension Tools

One of the most important parts of fostering reading comprehension is just practice with reading. There are a ton of different reading games and activities, but a fundamental classroom activity- as well as some activities that are good for the home- are just simply reading together. Children learn best by doing, and that means that reading and analyzing literature can be developed simply by doing it together. There are many different ways to help children develop the tools and questions for understandin the characters, events, and quality of a work; but we also need to provide them with opportunities to apply these tools on their own. A safe way to do this, and give the children an opportunity to observe peers, adults, and teachers using comprehension tactics is to work in a group setting. Some different ways to allow children to work on comprehension as a group are:

• Choral reading- the entire class, or small group of children reads an entire passage along with the teacher
• Paired Reading- when a more able reader is paired with someone as a model reader to facilitate the progress and development of the less fluent reader.
• Reader's Theater- oral reading of a a short play. the children have assigned parts and practice the parts for presentation.
• Antiphonal Reading- is a choral reading done in groups.
• Echo Reading- The teacher or more able reader reads one line of a text, and the child then reads the same line.
• Repeated Reading- Read the same story three or four times in one week.
• Some other highly used strategies for teaching comprehension are DLTA (directed listening and thinking activity) and DRTA (directed reading and thinking activity). The goal of this strategy is that it's methods of comprehension will be internalized and by the children through frequent use and demonstration by the instructor.

Below is a video showing children reading in pairs in class.

Predicting, and Inferring things about Literature

 

Creating active readers and students who participate in the reading gives students the opportunity to fall in love with reading. Setting this stage in young readers is crucial to providing them the chance to develop a passion for reading which could be the deciding factor in their future success as a student and in life. In order to help children to become active with literature, which is a dynamic force in making reading FUN! we need to remember that the story can come alive for the children. Getting children involved invovles things like asking them questions throughout the story. This doesn't mean that any old questions are good enough. There are thought provoking questions, and boring questions. In order to take advantage of the potential that questions have to offer, lets discuss some of the different types of questions we can ask with children.

Prediction Questions-

1. What do you think will happen next?
2. What will this help, hurt, or do?

Factual

1. Describe to me_____
2. What is the name of _____?
3. Who is in the picture?
4. Where does the story take place?
5. Why did ____ do _____?

Inference

1. Where do you think?
2. Why do you think?
3. What do you think about?
4. What would you guess about?

Opinion

1. Should _____?
2. Would _____?
3. Could ______?

Text Structure Questions

1. What was the problem in the story?
2. How did the story end?

Linking

1. Have you ever?

Below is an interesting, short video that demonstrates some different strategies for working with the very important scholastic activity of "Predicting, Inferring, Visualizing, and Determining Important Content".

Below is a good list of questions that parents and teachers can refer to in order to differntiate questions and uderstanding the types of questions that they ask.

 

 

Below is a good list to make use of in an early childhood classroom (or at home), which can help to guide the reader or the adult supervising the young reader, in what question might help direct the reader towards comprehension, and analysis of the story.

Sequencing Events

Sequencing events is a good place for children to begin with recalling a story and observing cause/effect in literature. Sequencing a story helps children to learn to pay attention to the details pertaining to characters and setting. Creating dialogue about a story is a good way to direct children's thoughts to the events in a story, but creating a timeline about a story is a good way to demonstrate to them the ability to recall a story and what happened in it. There a ton of activities that children can do to facilitate an understanding of the sequence of events in a story. Children can retell a story, which gives them authorship in defining important details. Children can work with pictures in order to facilitate a retelling of the story.

This YouTube video link on "Reading Comprehension Strategies: Sequence of Events" works with the sequencing of events and provides a lot of diffent short activities that will help children to develop an understanding for sequencing through the use of fun and engaging activities.

This simple graphic organizer is a good way of getting children into the analytical stage of sequencing events and provides an opportunity for visualizing the events with a good re-applicable format.

General Strategies of Engaging Literature

Developing reading comprehension comes from children learning how to work with the material in front of them and asking questions. Developing this skill starts with children doing things like looking over a book before they start to read, making opinions about the characters and story while the book is being read, making predictions, and comparing the characters and story development throughout reading.

A very in depth explanation of the development of reading comprehension is available in PDF form at the following link: Reading Comprehension

A good video for parents to set the stage with children works to make reading more informational for both the child and the parent. Creating a sense of wonder about the material helps children to be more intrigued by the materials and makes the reading process more developmental.

Below is a good way to start with children in the most simple way to work with comparing a text. It is a chart that can be used with very non-experienced young readers as a way of introducing them to the materials as relevant to their own lives and expriences.

Foundations of Reading Comprehension

 

Reading comprehension has only recently become a subject to be studied in the last 40 years, most of what we know has come to light since research began in 1975. Comprehension is tightly interwoven with making readers good readers, and providing them with the tools to be evaluative readers. Having comprehension skills allows people to evaluate what they are reading, and decide the quality of the work. Creating this skill in children starts when they first start reading. Parents and teachers can facilitate the development of reading comprehension by talking about what a child is reading with them. Asking them questions about what they read is a great way to begin the process of children recalling information about literature, which sets the stage for children learning analysis of literature in time. This process begins with children learning to read with the parent and working on basic skills of conversing about a book.

Below is a link to a PDF that has a lot of in depth analysis about the benefits of fostering reading comprehension in children.
http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/downloads/research_papers/mc_research.pdf