October 28th Blog Post: Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension has been and will forever be a very important resource in creating good readers and writers. In Laura Pardo's article What every teacher needs to know about comprehension, I like her shared definition of "comprehension as the process in which readers conduct meaning by interacting with text through a combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance the reader takes in relationship to the text" (Pardo1). Do you think of it differently? It's hard to really understand and take note that reading comprehension really is based on partially what the student already knows, and how they react to the reading and relate it to what they know. It's so important that readers are exposed to all different kinds of words and practices to increase their reading comprehension when it comes to learning new things. I think reading comprehension does not only help the reader to practice, but it is one of the main resources a teacher has to know where the reader stands in his level of reading. Reading comprehension is what everything is based upon. It helps the teacher to know how the child is doing in everything the student needs to be a successful reader: phonic awareness, word decoding and recognition, and fluency. I strongly agree with Pardo stating that the teacher has a lot to do with the students success as well. Without these elements of reading, students would not be able to COMPREHEND reading. It's up to the teacher to give the students the vital skills and give the students opportunities to relate what they are reading to prior knowledge. As teachers we have to be their lifeline and motivation to want to learn and think, asking question like "Have we heard anything like this before?" or "What do you think you would do in this characters situation?" or "You guys know a lot about this what do you think.....?" Teachers have to motivate by reading what the children want. They have to be interested and willing to engage to really learn. We have to make reading comprehension exercises fun and knowledgeable. What are some other ways we could motivate our readers?

Everything read seems to come from something else. I remember doing tasks as a student and I always enjoyed doing reading comprehension activities, because I thought they were easy. Attention and knowledge of words and circumstances are very important in reading comprehension. Like Pardo, I think teacher read aloud are important when first beginning to do reading comprehension. It not only helps the student to pay attention and listen to the text, but it helps them have the chance to really think about the text. It's important for us as teachers to keep their attention as well, asking questions as we read, such as "What are some of the
major details that a character is doing?" or "What do you think is going to happen?"or the questions we have all grown up hearing, "Who?", "What?", "When?", "Where?", "How?" This will not only engage the students, but will give them practice on what to look for and what the main details that should be notice while they read.

As students make connections between the reading and themselves, they are able to understand and somewhat make inferences of what could potentially happen in the reading. The fact that they know what is going on through their word recognition and prior knowledge, they are able to relate to what they read and log it into memory. This will help them understand the text, relate it to the world, and over all comprehend the reading.

Here is a great site that has wonderful comprehension strategies and activities for students!
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/comprehension_strategies.html

Pictures/ activity ideas:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Comprehension-Making-Connections-178217
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Need-My-Monster-WritingReading-Comprehension-280630
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Comprehension-Strategies-Questions-778044