7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It!

Transcription

1 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins Reading is the greatest single effort that the human mind undertakes, and one must do it as a child. ~John Steinbeck Several Newcastle teachers participated in a book study this spring. In order to best help our students, we would love to share some of the best of what we have read. This book is an excellent resource for parents who want to help their children become readers for life. One of the authors analogies to help children grow as readers is that their parents and teachers water them with words and books. For your child to become a great reader, her mind needs similar watering [to bamboo]. You water your child with words-- talking and reading. It doesn t take a lot of time, but you must never forget to water, a little bit every day, week after week, year after year. (p. 2) The biggest gift you can give your children is the love of reading! This book has seven keys to helping your kids love reading! They are: 1. Create mental images 2. Use background knowledge 3. Ask questions 4. Make inferences 5. Determine the most important ideas or themes 6. Synthesize information 7. Use fix-up strategies In order to help parents utilize the same strategies teachers are using in the classroom, we put together some ideas we learned from our book study. We hope these are helpful.

2 Key 1: Visualizing= Mental/Sensory Images Visualizing is the creation of images in the mind as the student reads, processes and recalls what has been read. Visualizing a picture or scene with the words and phrases allows the reader to organize the ideas, to see the relationship among the ideas, and to make meaningful connections with them. Visualizing helps your child start with the concrete and move to more abstract thinking. How can a parent help? Share the sensory images that you have when you read- elaborate, be creative and tell your child every sound you hear, every smell you smell and every scene you see as you read. Sketch what you picture and what senses were activated as you read Act out the story Read stories to your child without showing the pictures as you re reading Key 2: Background Knowledge When we read a book we bring our own experiences to it: adventures, relationships and passions. This background knowledge is continuously built upon on a daily basis and as we read we activate it, making it stronger and in return strengthen our comprehension. Our background knowledge helps us connect to the text we are reading. You may reread a book you read 10 years ago and connect to it or understand it differently due to the experiences you had over those years. Similarly, you may be reading the same book as your friends and make completely different connections with the book due to the differences in your life experiences. Discussing background knowledge with your child is easy and engaging for your child; they get to learn about your life experiences and get to know you better while also sharpening his/her reading skills. When reading with your child here are some ways for sharing your background knowledge and connections. That reminds me of this book I read, or this story I heard on the news. That makes me remember when When I read the words it reminded me of Thinking about that experience reminds me of. I m confused when I read these words (This shows your child how you are building your background knowledge. Model how you can read on, look at pictures or use other experiences you have to figure out the meaning.) Do you remember when? Thinking about that helps me picture the scene here. Discuss what the book might be about by looking at the book cover, the title, author description and back cover

3 Show your child how you read from right to left and some books have different structures and formats (i.e. subheadings in nonfiction or magazines) With older children take turns reading alternate chapters, pages or paragraphs to continue sharing connections Use sticky notes to mark where you have connections in the text Key 3: Questioning Parents can model what it means to be curious by sharing the questions they have while reading. Questions help children clarify ideas, deepen understanding and make sense of the world. Good readers have questions as they read-before, during and after. Questions can have a specific answer or just leave you wondering. Language to use with questioning: I wonder Why? What does this mean? That was a great question. Do you have any more? Your question made me think of another question. How come? Key 4: Drawing Inferences By inferring children elaborate on what they read, going beyond what is on the page, reading in between the lines. Many children are beautiful readers, they sound fluent as they read the words on the page. They rush through books as if they can t get enough. However, they are not making meaning as they read; they are simply reading the words. They need to learn how to think and interpret as they read and as parents this is how you can help: Encourage your child to talk to you about what they were thinking as they read Honor their thinking Point out when your child is making inferences throughout the day, not only when they are reading When your child is able to read body language they are inferring Play word games to help your child pay attention to clues, ask questions, make connections, predict, and confirm Inferring will help your child figure out the meaning of unknown words Make predictions before you begin reading a story then read to see if your guess is correct Talk about the deeper meanings of the story, what isn t directly stated in the story

4 The following questions can help you start a conversation with your child and help them make inferences: o What did you think? o What do you predict? o What is your guess? o What surprised you? o What conclusion can you make? For pre-school readers: Play word games such as creating riddles for each other that you must solve. Read books with riddles. Take words out of rhyming songs and have your child guess what the missing word must be. For emerging readers: As you read a story with your child, have an on-going discussion with them about what the characters might be feeling or make predictions about what might happen next. Share your thinking and how you use the clues from the dialogue or setting in the story to determine what the character might be feeling and how they might act. For advanced readers: Read novels aloud with your child at home and as you read together, share your questions, predictions, inferences, and images with each other to piece together the aspects of the story that are clearly spelled out in the text. Discuss why a character may have acted in a certain way, or what you think really happened during a specific event. Make predictions together based on the clues in the text so far and discuss how those predictions play out in the story as you keep reading. Good readers use their prior knowledge and information from what they read to make predictions, seek answers to questions, draw conclusions, and create interpretations that deepen their understanding of the text. Key 5: Determining Importance We have more information available to us than our grandparents could have ever imagined! Information alone is meaningless. Information has to be thought about and organized, then internalized. You get from facts to knowledge only if you take time to determine what is important and synthesize the information so that is becomes meaningful. (p. 123) Knowing your purpose for reading helps determine what is important. Your purpose for reading affects how carefully you read and has an impact on what you determine is important. For example, your purpose for reading an instruction manual is different than reading a mystery novel.

5 How parents can help: Ignite your child s curiosity! Seek answers to questions Text features give valuable information about what is important Look for new facts together Key 6: Synthesizing Synthesizing is the process of asking, What does the story mean to me? Synthesizing helps deepen the reader s thinking and understanding. Key Points: Have your child retell the most important parts of the story and then put it into a summary. A synthesis occurs while you create the summary What does the story mean to me? Background knowledge + story summary = synthesis As you re reading, stop once and awhile and discuss what s important to remember Questions to ask: What was your purpose for reading this piece? What has the author done to signal what is important to remember? What is essential to remember? What does it all mean to you? Has your thinking changed after reading this passage? Key 7: Fix-Up Strategies Sometimes readers get lost in the text and find themselves confused or zoned-out. Readers can use fix-up strategies when they are stuck and need help to get back on track towards comprehension. Model fix-up strategies for your child when reading together Help your child guess what the book will be about by showing the cover and pictures before you read the story Congratulate a child if they noticed that you skipped a page Model your thinking when you need to reread in order to understand a passage Ask questions and describe detailed sections of the story to better understand challenging texts Praise a child if he/she catches you incorrectly paraphrasing the end of a bedtime story

6 How to help your child get unstuck when reading his/her own book Suggest that they reread passages that are hard When your child comes across a word they are unfamiliar with, help them look for clues in the book to define the term, draw a picture, or talk to an expert about what the term might mean Try This Have your child pick a difficult passage for you to read. Model how you get unstuck. Tell your child what you do in your job when you don t understand something. Reading, almost as much as breathing, is our essential function. ~ Alberto Manguel Visible and Invisible Reading Ingredients Good news: You don t have to be an expert in reading to help your child become a great reader! Supporting a great reader requires both visible and invisible ingredients. The visible (what s on the page) are the phonics, lexical and syntax ingredients. The invisible (what is in your mind) are the semantics, schema and pragmatic ingredients. Surface Structures Phonics The knowledge of recognizing letters and sounds the sounds that go with them. Use alphabet songs and books Play I Spy Encourage your child to write notes, lists and labels to express their ideas Lexical The knowledge of recognizing whole words rapidly without needing to sound them out. Point out writing on signs and in stores Build their storehouse of sight words by rereading favorite books Talk about how the same word can sometimes look different in books. Syntax The structure of language: hearing when sentences sound right and recognizing correct grammar and punctuation. Use wordless picture books to talk about what is happening in the pictures

7 Read books with a lot of expression in your voice. Ask them if what you re saying sounds right. Talk to your child! Kids need to hear themselves talk. They learn the structure of language by speaking and listening. Deep Structures Semantics Understanding the meanings of words in different contexts. Share how clues to the meaning of a word can be found in pictures Show your child how to make a best guess about the meaning of an unknown word, then read ahead to see if the guess what right. Ask your child, Does this word make sense? or What do you think this word means? Show your children that words often have different meanings in different contexts: The farm was used to produce produce. Schema Knowing there is a need to build and use background knowledge in order to enhance understanding. Give your child experiences to draw from as a reader. Talk to him/her about the activity and help them connect this to their reading. Talk about your own memories when you re reading a book. Give your child books that connect to subjects they are passionate about. Prompt conversation by saying, Doesn t this remind you of. Pragmatic The knowledge of understanding the purpose for specific reading and reading differently depending upon the audience. Talk to your child about the reasons you read and encourage him/her to think about why they are reading. Create specific reasons to read: using a map, following a recipe, book club. Everyone who knows how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, to multiply the ways in which they exist to make their life full, significant and interesting. ~Aldous Huxley