Reading for Comprehension

When my children were in school, reading was measured by dibels testing and Read Naturally. It was mostly about word per minute and timed tests. AR testing and AR books were a tool used to increase student's comprehension; but AR to me seemed to push kids to read and pass the test. It didn't have much to do with reading for enjoyment or a "just right" book. It certainly didn't seem to be centered on comprehension at all, especially in the primary grades. "Good readers are aware of their understanding or lack of it and always do whatever is necessary to make sense of what they are reading. You can't start teaching comprehension in grade 3. You start teaching it the day kids enter preschool or kindergarten."(Routman, p.118)

Routman asks teachers to remember their own comprehension strategies. When reading Routman for this week, I review all the headings and read all the captions and boxes. I try to get an idea of what the main idea is before reading the chapter. I like to read the introduction paragraphs and concluding paragraphs. This helps me as I read the chapter for retention. I also need to hold the book or paper and use a highlighter to mark important passages in the text. This way I can retain more of what I have read and can refer back to the reading and recapture the main idea. "Our students are more likely to increase their reading comprehension when we show them how we understand a text and model a variety of strategies ( such as asking questions,predicting, summarizing and clarifying)." (Routman, p. 122) I have not shared any of this with my students, but after reading Routman, I can see how modeling this for them as my strategy would have more meaning for them.

In my placement I have taught predicting when reading a read aloud book with my class. I will have planned out stopping places throughout the story where I can stop and ask my students what they think will happen next? It is a great way to check for their understanding of what I have just read and to get them interested in what is coming next. In reading non fiction for social studies or reading time, we monitor and clarify, did we understand what just happened in the past few paragraphs? Should re-read these passages for words that might help to convey meaning?

What I don't understand is if comprehension is so important, why are we still using dibels and reading words per minute as assessments for reading? These assessments certainly aren't telling teachers the whole story of what we need to know about a student's ability to comprehend what they read, not just read the words.

Literacy Week 3

Fox Chapter 2:
Fox identifies seven ways children demonstrate sound awareness. Choose one of these and then select two activities (also from chapter 2) that support the development of this sound-awareness skill. What is the focus of the activity? What are the directions? What would you be looking for to let you know the children are using the targeted skill (assessment)?

In reading Fox, Chapter 2, the author identifies phonemic awareness as a way that children demonstrate sound awareness. When children learn to identify single sounds, called phonemes, they begin an important step towards reading and writing. Children develop phonemic awareness by learning to isolate sounds, segmenting sounds, manipulating sounds and blending sounds. Two activities that support the development of blending sounds are Finger Puppet Talk and Arm Blending.

In Finger Puppet Talk the focus of the activity is for “children to listen to the finger puppet say words sound by sound and then blend sounds together to pronounce the word” (Fox, Ch 2, pg 53) The directions are that teacher uses a finger puppet and introduces this puppet as one who only talks in sounds. The finger puppet pronounces the word man as /m/-/a/-/n/. The children say the whole word. The teacher would be looking for the children to say the whole word after the finger puppet sounds the word out. Teacher might go over several words and then repeat three to four as an assessment to see if the targeted skill of blending is being used to say the whole word.

In Arm Blending the focus of the activity is for children to use their whole arm as “ a kinesthetic approach to blending that they can use whenever they are reading.” (Fox, Ch. 2, Pg. 53) The directions are that the teacher can have the children imagine that they use their arms to blend words. They use their shoulder, crook of their arm and wrist to blend words. They say the word as they slide their hand from their shoulder to their wrist. Then the children say the whole word again. By using their arms they can remember placing the sounds in the right order. The sweeping motion from shoulder to crook of the arm to the wrist is a tactile way to remember what their sound like as they blend the word.

Both of these activities can be powerful ways for children to develop phonemic awareness and to learn blending sounds.