Comprehension Strategies Instruction
Reading is an integral part of third grade. One of the most important aspects of the literacy curriculum in third grade is to build a strong foundation for reading comprehension. Reading comprehension refers to the ability to acquire meaning from written text. When students enter third grade, they are no longer learning to read; they are now reading to learn. In order to allow for the utmost growth as comprehenders in third grade, our reading curriculum relies heavily on comprehension strategies instruction. That is, students are taught a variety of strategies to apply before reading, during reading, and after reading in order to make the most meaning from a text. (Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002; Robinson, McKenna, & Wedman, 2004)
Many things need to happen in order for students to excel in the area of reading comprehension. Good comprehenders are fluent, which means they have good word identification skills and can read orally with speed, accuracy, and appropriate expression . If your child is still struggling towards becoming a fluent reader, do not worry. As your child works to build a strong foundation in the area of reading comprehension, they will be working towards improving their oral reading as well. Reading with your child at home each night will help to improve their oral reading skills. Please continue to encourage your child to read for at least fifteen minutes each night and to fill out their "Star Reader" forms. (Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002)
As stated previously, in order for students to build strong reading comprehension skills, they need to acquire the use of various comprehension strategies. According to leading researchers, students' meaning making from text can be improved by teaching them to use the comprehension strategies used by good readers. Within our reading curriculum, the students are introduced to new comprehension strategies on a weekly basis. The strategies are repeated throughout the year and applied to texts of various genres. By the end of the year, the goal is for students to apply the strategies on their own, without the help of an adult. Students must strive to be consciously aware of what they are reading. They must build metacognition, or the ability to "think about one's thinking" in order to do this. (Block & Pressley, 2002)
It is extremely important for students to practice reading skills both in school and at home in order to allow for the most success. You can reinforce the use of comprehension strategies as you read with your child at home. It is helpful for your child to see you applying the strategies as well as you read. As you read about the strategies below, you will also learn tips as to how you can model them for your child. Since it is difficult for students to internalize these strategies at first, it will be difficult for them to "teach" you about these strategies. Therefore, I will provide a list of comprehension strategies that you can reinforce at home and a brief overview of each one below. Keep in mind that these strategies are to be utilized before reading, during reading, and after reading in order for them to be most effective. I will also provide you with many activities, games, books, and websites that you can use with your child to build comprehension. You will find these at the bottom of this page.
Strategies to apply before reading:
Activate Prior Knowledge
Before reading a story or starting a new book, it is important to take the time to discuss what the story may be about in order to activate your child's background knowledge. Leading researchers have found that children are better able to comprehend texts when they are taught to make connections between what they know and what they are reading. According to Schema Theory, people organize everything they know into schemas, or knowledge structures. Leading researchers have found that readers have schemas for the reading process and for different types of text. For example, a reader that has an elaborate schema for snorkeling will comprehend a text on that topic much differently than someone who has a limited schema on snorkeling. This is why is is so important to have your child pick a book that is of interest to them. (Robinson, McKenna, & Wedman, 2004; Tracey & Morrow, 2006)
You can activate your child's background knowledge by having a discussion about something that happened in real life in order to form a connection between the text and your child's life. If you are reading about camping, bring up a time when your child has been camping. Asking them questions about the camping trip and discussing memories of the camping trip will activate your child's background knowledge about the subject. This way, when they begin to read the story, they will have a better idea of what the story line is like. Being able to relate to what is happening in the story will allow them to comprehend it with less effort.
It is important to activate background knowledge to ensure that your child is able to make the connection between text and real life. If your child's background knowledge is incorrect, then the level of comprehension will be impaired. For example, if you are going to read a story about hiking and your child is thinking about rock climbing, they are going to have difficulty relating to and understanding the story because their background knowledge is incorrect and does not match the main idea of the story. Redirecting any misunderstandings before you start reading will enable your child to better comprehend the material being read. As children become more familiar with this strategy, they understand that connecting a text to their lives is a key aspect of reading comprehension. (Tracey & Morrow, 2006; Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002)
Making
Predictions
Before reading a new story, it is helpful to have your child make predictions about what they think the story is about and what they think will happen in the story. Predictions are basically educated guessed or hypotheses about what the story is going to be about. This is a strategy that we utilize in during reading every week, so your child should be familiar with it. The students know that they are to make a prediction about the story before they begin reading. This comprehension strategy goes hand in hand with activating prior knowledge. As soon as a readers sees the title of a selection, looks at a picture on a cover, or reads a first line, prior knowledge is triggered and, on the basis of that prior knowledge, predictions are formed about the story. (Duffy, 2003)
As stated previously, this is a strategy that your child should be familiar with. Before making predictions, the students have been taught to read the title of the story, look at any pictures on the cover, and take a "picture walk" throughout the story. A "picture walk" consists of looking at the various pictures throughout the story in order to gain insight as to what the story may be about. Once your child has done this, it is important to discuss their thoughts. Ask them questions what they think the story will be about based on the title of the story and the pictures they have just studied. Your child should be able to back up their predictions with an explanation of why they formed the predictions they did. (Duffy, 2003)
Strategies to apply during reading:
Monitor
Predictions
You should encourage your child to make new predictions as they read through the story. Successful readers pay attention to what is happening and anticipate that there may be a need to change a prediction. It is important to stop every so often and ask your child if their initial predictions were correct, and if not, what new predictions can be made. (Duffy, 2003)
Visualizing/Imagery
Visualizing is another comprehension strategy that we utilize on a regular basis in school. Visualizing involves the reader creating pictures in one's mind as he/she reads through a story. Good comprehenders create images in their minds so that they can "see" what is happening in the story. This will provide them with a deeper understanding of the setting, characters, and events in a story. Students that are taught to use mental imagery, constructing images in their heads consistent with meanings conveyed in texts, are more likely to gain meaning from text. ( Robinson, McKenna, & Wedman, 2004; Duffy, 2003)
One way to encourage your child to visualize as they read through a story is to do it yourself. You can model and think-aloud to show your child how to go about doing this. As you read with your child, stop every few pages and describe what you are seeing and feeling. Say something like, "After reading this page, this is what I am picturing in my mind". You can ask your child to close their eyes and then read a passage to them that is full of descriptive words. When you finish reading, ask your child what they "saw" as you read through the passage. This is something we do often in class, and the more practice your child has with it, the more thorough they will become when describing the contents of a story. Leading researchers have created the Sensory Imaging Strategy (SIS) which assists children to develop the ability to form images in their minds as they read. SIS requires teachers and parents to demonstrate their own ability to create images in their minds in an attempt to provide students with a clear idea of what is expected of them. Parents and teachers should include all senses when describing text, including seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing. In order to make using this comprehension strategy more enjoyable for your child, you can have them draw a picture of what they see and then have talk about what they drew. If we, parents and teachers, can develop visualizing in children, we will be helping to improve their level of comprehension at the same time. (Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002; Duffy, 2003)
Using Context Clues
Vocabulary knowledge is an important part of reading comprehension, and good vocabulary instruction involves children actively relating new words to context. Many times, when reading a story, your child will come across a word that is unfamiliar to them. In order to ensure for the utmost level of comprehension, your child must stop and attempt to figure out the meaning of this new word. The most functional way to learn the meaning of a new word is to figure it out through thoughtful use of context. When your child encounters a new word, they can use clues within the text to figure out for themselves what the word means. Context clues can range from straightforward clues, in which the definition of a word is directly applied, to subtle clues, such as mood clues. Using context clues is a strategy that we utilize in class on a daily basis. The students are encouraged to reread the sentences all around the unfamiliar word in hopes of locating clue words that will imply the meaning of the unfamiliar word. (Robinson, McKenna, & Wedman, 2004; Duffy, 2003)
For example, your child may come across the sentence, "The child was so happy when she won the Spelling Bee that she was beaming with pleasure from ear to ear". If your child is unfamiliar with the word beaming, you can encourage your child to reread the sentence to look for any words that may provide clues as to what the word means. Your child will most likely locate the words happy and pleasure, and the phrase, won the Spelling Bee, to infer that when someone is happy, they will smile. A child's comprehension will be greatly increased when the use of context clues is successful. Readers should constantly check their word recognition and understanding of the meanings of words to be sure that the text being read is making sense to them. (Block, Gambrell, & Pressley, 2002)
Strategies to apply after reading:
Summarizing
After reading, a good reader reflects on what he/she read and constructs a summary of what was in the text. When a student constructs a summary of a story, they are creating a brief retelling of the story. You can assist your child with the summarization process both when you read with your child and when your child reads on their own. Having your child talk about what they read will provide you with the knowledge of whether they comprehended the text or not. When creating a summary, encourage your child to think about the story in three parts- the beginning, middle, and end. At first, your child may create a summary by retelling every event from the story. This is common among third grade students. Encourage your child to leave out the details, and instead focus on the bid ideas from the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end. (Duffy, 2003; Robinson, McKenna, & Wedman, 2004)
When practicing the skill of summarizing with your child, you may want to start off by having them summarize a single paragraph. You can help your child by demonstrating this strategy for your child by creating a summary of a paragraph read. Your child will note that you only chose to talk about the main ideas in the paragraph, and not all the unimportant details. As your child becomes more comfortable with this strategy, have them summarize more than a paragraph, such as a short story, and then move onto longer stories. You can also assist your child in summarizing by having them create a written story map, in which they focus on the characters, the setting, the beginning (in which they discuss any problems in the story), the middle (in which important information about solving the problem is discussed), and the end (in which the way the problem is resolved is discussed). Summarizing is an important strategy that can enhance your child's level of comprehension. (Duffy, 2004; Block & Pressley, 2002)
Drawing
Conclusions
After reading, it is important to have your child think about and reflect upon what they have read. Through this reflection, your child can draw conclusions about various events in the story, as well as about the author's purpose for writing the story. When drawing conclusions, children think about what the author wants them to be thinking at various points throughout the story. In school, we often utilize this strategy in relation to the characters in a story. The students are asked to draw conclusions about the character's actions and personality in order to better understand who the characters are. Students often ask themselves questions in order to draw conclusions about the author's purpose for writing a story. (Duffy, 2003)
Checking
Predictions
After reading, you should encourage your child to check the predictions they made before reading and throughout the story. The predictions your child makes can give you a glimpse as to whether or not they are comprehending the material. If your child's predictions are correct, or at least relevant to the story, you will know that they are at least grasping the main gist of the story. Having your child go back and analyze their predictions can give them a sense of pride and accomplishment if they were correct in their predictions.
For tips on motivating your child to read, click below:
For a list of recommended websites and games on comprehension strategies for both parents and children, click below:
Recommended
Websites/Games
For a list of recommended books for third grade students, click below:
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