Comprehension is vital in every readers development. All ages of the spectrum have to understand and comprehend what is read to be good readers. It is one thing to be able to read words, but it is even more important to be able to comprehend what you are reading to be able to use it and relate it to your own life. All through schooling I remember having to read passages and answer specific questions about the passage. From TCAP standardized test when I was younger to even the ACT in high school, tests use reading comprehension to test the skill and level of a reader. All through grade school, reading comprehension activities were used to put kids in their reading level. I remember the different colors of reading comprehension activities and how some questions would be very easy while higher levels would be more critical thinking questions. In Gregory and Cahill's article that we read this week I like the ideas that it shared to get the kids involved and active with reading comprehension. When first learning to read, pictures are important to relate and use when comprehending what the words on the pages are saying for younger readers. Schema is important when looking at these pictures or reading words, you know you have seen or heard the words before, but it is important for younger readers to be able to relate this knowledge to their knowledge they already know. I like the idea of the "Velcro Theory." I had never thought of it in the way of velcro, but when reading we automatically attach knowledge we know with every word that we read. As students see pictures on a page it is also vital for children to be able to make pictures of their own from the words that they hear. Children can guess what a story is about from looking at a picture, but this may not be able to tell teachers how able a child is to read the words off the page. Allowing children to form a visual of their own out of the words does allow the teacher to know how much they truly understand and how they are making connections from what they
already know to what they are hearing. While observing classrooms, it seems that teachers always allow the children to make "I Wonder..." statements before the story is read. They make inferences about what the story is about after making their own visual and then comparing it to the real visual of the story.Using all of these exercises allows the student to understand and infer what they story will be about according to their schema and their ability to create a combination of what they know and what they are seeing on the page. Even as an older reader I still use the title to infer what the passage I will read may be about. Do you still practice some of these pre reading skills? These pre reading activities, go well with the ones Gill notices as well like asking questions and making organizers and charts. I liked Gill's idea of the K-W-L. I think it is a good way to remember how students use their schema and how important it is to related it to what they get out of the passage and then what they learn. During reading activities I believe are just as important to keep the students engaged and making continuous connections during the words are read. Continuing to ask question as the teacher does a read aloud will help the students make connections and think and hear what their fellow students have to say. Teachers are a vital source of the success of reading comprehension. Teachers are the motivators and activity planners to stimulate the minds of the students so they activate their schemas and can relate what they have learned to what they know.
Here is a link with seven teaching comprehension strategies:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479/
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