Chapter 7-Comprehension

Kira Kalepp                        Week 9                   ENGED 463

Comprehension Strategies

• The different kinds of thinking that we do as we read are referred to as comprehension strategies.  As you read, your brain uses these thinking strategies…
  • Calling up and connecting relevant prior knowledge
  • Predicting, questioning and wondering about what will be learned and what will happen
  • Visualizing or imagining what the experiences would look, feel, sound, taste and smell like
  • Monitoring comprehension and using fix-up strategies such as rereading, pictures, asking for help when you cannot make sense of what you read
  • Determining the most important ideas and events and summarizing what you have read
  • Drawing conclusions and making inferences based on what was read
  • Evaluating and making judgments about what you think (did you like it, did you agree, was it funny, could it really happen, etc.)

Think-Alouds to Teach Comprehension Strategies

• Think-alouds are a way of modeling or ‘making public’ the thinking that goes on inside your head as you read
• Tell your students what the voices in your head are saying
• Demonstrate for your students how we think as we read
• Try to include all thinking strategies like…
  • This reminds me of…
  • I read another book where the character…
  • I wonder if…
  • I think we will learn how…
  • So far in our story…
  • I know he must be feeling…
  • I wonder what it means when it says…
  • I don’t understand…
  • Even though it isn’t in the picture, I can see the…
  • I could hear the…
  • My favorite part in this chapter was…
  • If I were her, I would…

Comprehending Narrative Texts

• Consist of stories, plays and poetry

Story Maps

• Are popular and effective devices to guide students’ thinking when they are reading as story
• Many different ways to create one, but all help children follow the story by drawing their attention to the elements that all stories share
  • Main character
  •  Setting
  • Problem/goal
  • Main events
  • Solution
  • Theme/moral

The Beach Ball

• Helps students develop their ability to understand and retell stories
• Students would toss the ball and answer any question on the ball that their finger is pointing too

Themes, Moral and Lessons Learned

• When reading narratives, what we tend to remember are the characters and major events in the plot
• Ask yourself questions like
  • Who did what to whom
  • When and where did the events occur

Doing the Book

• Children who ‘do’ the book become more active readers
• Children remember the aspects of the story when they re-create the book in activities like…
  • Doing a play
  • Act out a story
  • Make a scene
  • Readers theater

Compare and Contrast Bubbles

•  Similarities and differences between two things can be demonstrated and organized in a Venn diagram or double bubble
• This type of graphic organizer is very versatile and can be used to teach students to compare and contrast two things-setting, characters, themes, versions of same tale and other traits

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that comprehension is the reason and prime motivator for engaging in reading.  Reading comprehension and how to teach it, is probably the area of literacy that we have the most knowledge and the most consensus.  But it is the area that gets the least attention in the classroom.  It is important for teacher to show and model how students should think as they read a text.  Good readers are active and have clear goals in mind.  They preview text before reading, make predictions and read selectively to meet their goals. They construct, revise and question the meanings they are making as they read.  They try to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words and concepts.  They draw from, compare and integrate their prior knowledge with what they are reading.  They monitor their understanding and make adjustments as needed.  They think about the author of the text and evaluate the texts’ quality and value.  Lastly, they read different kinds of text differently, paying close attention to characters and settings when reading narratives, and constructing and revising summaries in their minds when reading expository text.

Strategies that Promote Comprehension

General instructional activities

• To correspond with a typical reading lesson, comprehension strategy instruction can be organized into a three-part framework, with specific activities used before, during, and after reading.
• Providing instruction such as the following example allows students to see, learn, and use a variety of comprehension strategies as they read. Note, however, that the framework is a general one and represents an array of strategies. All of the strategies in this framework do not have to be used with every text or in every reading situation.

Before Reading

Teachers…

• Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks, dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant to students in some way.
• Activate students’ background knowledge important to the content of the text by discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic and about the text organization.

Students…

• Establish a purpose for reading.
• Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text.
• Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures) to make predictions about its content.
• Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text

During Reading

Teachers…

• Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor their understanding.
• Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas and important points in the text.
• Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences.
• Call on students to summarize key sections or events.
• Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to see if they are confirmed by the text.

Students…

• Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details.
• Make connections between and among important ideas in the text.
• Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge.
• Ask themselves questions about the text.
• Sequence events and ideas in the text.
• Offer interpretations of and responses to the text.
• Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult sentences and paragraphs.
• Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text

After Reading

Teachers…

• Guide discussion of the reading.
• Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text.
• Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including through writing, dramatic play, music, readers’ theatre, videos, debate, or pantomime.

Students…

• Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text.
• Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations.
• Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas.
• Discuss ideas for further reading.

Activities and procedures for use with narrative texts

• Retelling
• Story Maps
• Story Frames
• Direct Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA)

Activities and procedures for use with expository text

• KWL charts
• Question the Author
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Transactional Strategy Instruction
• The I-Chart Procedure

Comprehension Video Notes

• We have to teach them comprehension because it is more complex than just reading words
• Process works by building a structure-we have building materials that we need to organize, some comes from the text, but the rest come from their mind (background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of strategies to work things together)
• Very complicated and interactive process
• Its not just finding answers in the text
• Research says that each area can be developed (text structures, make inferences, word strategies and comprehension strategies)
• Good readers use these strategies during comprehension
• Comprehension should be stared in Kindergarten
• PICTURE
  • Predict (with use of background knowledge)
  • Imagine (visualize)
  • Clarify (make sense of everything)
  • Try (ask yourself how and why questions)
  • Use (use what you know, background knowledge)
  • Review (summarize and check)
  • Evaluate (how is it connected and talk about it)
• Classrooms with great comprehension should have language happening
  • Teachers are modeling and thinking out loud
  • Kids are asking questions
• Have children tell the teacher about the book/text-teachers ask questions
• The Theme Scheme
  • Helps struggling readers to move up in their basic thinking skills
  • We don’t want children to just read fluently, they need to understand what they are reading
  • Focuses on plot and underlying THEME of the story
  • Kids that use this program do better in comprehension
• Kids need to connect parts of a text as they are going along
• Oral language is limited, so it is essential to teach little kids big words and so they can learn them when/if they come up in a text
• Important to teach vocabulary (and hard words) to kids too during instructional time, but they need to be taught easily and in simple terms
• The relation between the meaning of words and comprehension is very closely related
• If students are struggling with something, have them picture what the word means
• Reciprocal Reading
  • Goal is to prepare students to run their own discussion
  • Teacher should the kids how it is done first (models)
  • FOUR steps-they first ask a question, then clarify meaning of unfamiliar words, then summarizing the main idea and lastly, prediction
• In schools, teaches need to collaborate together
• Schools are doing a better job teaching vocabulary than in the past and in interactive ways