[MOSAIC] Comprehension strategies and Harcourt

[Brienne Jenna Karow]

Through my own experience I have seen a great deal of comprehension  
taking place at the primary level. Although the bulk of literacy  
learning was decoding skills and practicing sight words, there were  
also daily routines and activities that reinforced comprehension  
skills such as; read alouds, predicting and then checking the accuracy  
of the predictions, picture walks, and several others. The important  
thing to remember is that students are naturally curious no matter  
their age, so why not capitalize on this and talk about everything  
that is going on in a book. Students begin to understand that this  
process consists of more than just reading words on a page. I have had  
a fourth grade student who was a phenomenal fluent reader, however,  
could not summarize, retell, or answer any questions about what she  
had just read. I couldn?t believe it and thought exactly the same  
thing, that this student has made it this far because of word calling,  
it is astonishing how this happens.

My advice would be to just talk about text as much as possible, no  
matter what it is (books, newspaper, magazines, nonfiction books,  
etc.) in the primary grades, and any grade for that matter. Asking  
questions, summarizing, and retelling stories are all powerful tools  
for increasing student comprehension, as well as showing students a  
wide variety of texts, genres, and new literacies (technology).
Brie





Message: 18
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:09:52 -0500
From: "Kendra Carroll" <kendra.carroll at stokes.k12.nc.us>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Comprehension strategies and Harcourt
To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group"
         <mosaic at literacyworkshop.org>, <mosaic at literacyworkshop.org>
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         <8168D7FA7E0AE44C89D6F53B223C6D4057136F at mailsvr2.stokes.k12.nc.us>
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In primary grades,  it should be about 50-50.  I am teaching 2nd grade  
for the first time after spending 3 years in first.  I am seeing many  
students who word call on a 4th grade level but cannot comprehend near  
that level.  Its almost like these students have spent so much time  
focusing on the word level that they have forgotten to take time to  
comprehend.  I am not sure if this is developmental or that we as  
teachers K-1 are not spending enough time on comprehension.  I would  
love to know the opinions of others:)

Kendra
North Carolina