| COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
Reading involves making meaning. Some children pronounce words correctly and
read with apparent ease, but have trouble with the meaning of what they have
read. As children increase their vocabularies, they begin to take more
meaning from text.
Students use strategies throughout their reading of a text. Strategies are
important before reading, during reading, and after reading. Below are a
few important points about helping students become strategic before, during
and after reading.
* Before reading a text, it is important to activate the students' prior
knowledge about the topic or book. One simple method of doing this is by
brainstorming. Once you have brainstormed a list of ideas, you can then
categorize those ideas to practice grouping, or organizational skills.
Allowing the students to share their ideas and thoughts about the text is an
important part of each lesson. It can be motivating to the students and
encourages them to read and make connections with the text.
* You also can make a list of predictions with the student. It is important
when making these predictions to periodically check on them or revisit the
predictions as you read the text.
* It is important to familiarize the student with any vocabulary he may
encounter before reading a text. This may increase the student's ability to
read the text with greater fluency.
* You can help by encouraging a child to talk about what she has read, by
pointing out new words and explaining their meaning, and by using strategies
such as the KWL approach to help children understand what they read.
The KWL approach includes the following steps:
K...What I Know. Help the child list what he already knows about a
topic that is discussed in a book he is going to read.
W...What I Want to Know. Help the child think of some questions he
has about this topic and add them to the chart.
L...What I Learned or Still Need to Learn. Explain that while he
reads the books - alone or with you - he can think about what he is learning.
After the reading, discuss the book and add what was learned to the chart
along with any information he still needs to learn. This strategy is used
both before and after reading the text. The information can be verified as
you read the text to assess the student's comprehension.
* During reading, when a student has trouble with a word, be sure to have
the child slow down and sound out, or break down the word. To supplement
this strategy, reinforce the use of context to get at the word. By
reminding the student to use these strategies, he or she can learn to
internalize the strategies to use them while reading independently.
* While reading it is helpful for students to pause and retell what they
have read.
* During reading it is important to return to the predictions created in
your pre-reading exercise. When you find support for one of the predictions
you can mark it on a chart or piece of paper. This is also true when you
find information that refutes a prediction.
* After reading, you can also help the student make connections between
this text and their own experiences, or other text they have read. If a
student has a connection to the story, her motivation to read and comprehend
it may increase.
* Making inferences, exploring implied meanings and drawing conclusions all
relate to the same process: moving beyond the literal meaning of the story
by linking prior knowledge and experiences with the text. Students of all
ages are able to make inferences. If you are working with a young reader,
you can explore the actions and people around you to understand inferencing.
It may be useful to use a "read aloud" text to engage the student in
inferencing. You can ask the student to explain the actions and motivation
of a character in a book, or interpret their reaction to an event in the
book.
After reading you also can explore cause and effect relationships in a
text. You can create a chart outlining the events of the story.
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