by Disinvestment Supporter

Created on: March 12, 2011

Reading comprehension encompasses a wide set of skills that are equally necessary to all aspects of language arts. Asking meaningful questions of a text while reading, anticipating what happens next, deciphering grammatical conventions, developing vocabulary, ordering major and minor points to better understand an argument, all these skills inform reading, writing and oral fluency. Repetitive practice is the key to mastery, and it is the job of anyone instructing beginning readers to set this repetition in meaningful contexts, so that the students do not lose their natural motivation to learn. Instruction in comprehension through modeling should precede the student's ability to read.

In the following activities, take note of how often you use the skills they support. Remember that texts should always be chosen to coincide with, or introduce, other studies and/or be chosen by students. Texts should always be used for more than one activity with a younger audience, as emergent readers will benefit most from this type repetition. While it can be beneficial with some activities to choose a text you know the students can handle alone, most often you will want to choose one within their zone of proximal development, a fancy phrase educators use to mean not to difficult and not too easy.

* Reading aloud is important for both young children and older readers. Studies have shown that lessons incorporating comprehension into the building of other skills, like deciphering words through the order of letters and meaning through grammar, produce more successful readers at a faster pace. Reading aloud to students allows them to focus on comprehension, and this is a good idea when introducing any new text.

The instructor reading aloud should practice beforehand, paying special attention to facial gestures, tone of voice, volume, speed, and meaningful questions, as they are modeling to students what will be expected of them in independent reading time. Share pre-conceived thoughts and questions with students before and during the reading. Ask them to consider the title and cover illustration to predict what the book may be about. Ask them to predict likely consequences of a character's decision and whether they would have done something differently. Ask them to help you decipher through context any unknown words. After a read aloud, get students to reconstruct the story for you, and ask why they think you chose this story.

* Think alouds are an effective way to model vital

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>