Comprehension is a process in which readers construct meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance the reader takes in relationship to the text (Pardo, 2004). As educators, we should use strategies that will build student comprehension. These strategies are called before, during, and after reading strategies. Before strategies activate the students’ prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. During strategies help the students make connections, monitor their understanding, generate questions, and stay focused. After strategies provide students the opportunity to summarize, question, reflect, discuss, and respond to text (“Classroom Strategies,” …show more content…
To utilize this strategy, the teacher takes key words from the reading material and displays them for the students. The main topic is in the center of all the other words. The words are displayed in some interesting visual presentation, they may be placed at angels or slight u shapes, on the board or on handout sheets. The students then work in small groups using the words to make sentences that are in relationship with the main topic. After the students create their sentences they complete the reading assignment. As the students see the terms in the reading assignment, they check their sentences and make the necessary modifications so the words fit in the sentences correctly. This strategy encourages students to brainstorm while working in groups. My concentration is in science, so I will give an example of how to use word splash for a lesson on biochemistry. Please refer to Table 1, word splash handout at the end of this paper to see the words the students will be given. After reviewing the words, the students will then create sentences such as: a) Symbols are used to represent compounds, b) Elements are the basic building block of all matter, or c) A chemical formula is a group of symbols. Once the students create their sentences, they would read the unit from the textbook, and check their sentences to see if the students were able to use the terms
I asked Student A eight comprehension questions about the text once she was finished reading. She did not have a problem with any of the questions. For example, one of the questions was “How old is Jessie now?” she responded right away with the correct answer “thirteen.” She did not even have to look back to the story to find the sentence; “Now that she is thirteen, Jessie competes with adults.” Student A was able to answer the “right there” questions with ease. Being able to remember key details from a text is crucial to developing the ability to comprehend what she is reading. She is already at a great stage when it comes to text comprehension and this will only help with further development. She had a purpose when she read and was reading for the details as opposed to reading to finish the text. She understood what was happening and if she continues to do this in the future, she will be able to understand more difficult texts by putting all of the key details together. Since Student A is able to recall key information from text, it will allow her to summarize and retell a text with ease. This strength will help Student A as she continues to develop as a reader because as the readings increase in difficulty she will remember the basic key details that she read and recount the story based on the main
Cathy Farrell, an English/ Language Arts teacher from Mount Baker Middle School, uses two pre-reading strategies in her instruction that she references as a “word wall” and an “inference wall.” The students examine the walls to learn new vocabulary and make inferences about upcoming chapters in The Outsiders. Farrell begins her lesson by establishing learning goals with the students, which include “I can identify information from the story” and “I can support my answers with details and evidence from the story.” She provides an explanation for the learning goals, stating that she intends for the students to be able to relate literature to their personal experiences. After she informs the students of their learning goals, she focuses their attention
Comprehension is the purpose of reading. Comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from a given text and applying that to the students background knowledge.
Students will pull out their sight words. The word will also be written on the board. The educator will ask the students to identify each letter in their sight words. The educator will explain to the students that letters form words and words form sentences. Tell the students what a space is and the definition of sentence. The educator will put different words together to form a sentences (i.e. The cat is fun.).
Next, model for students how they would share the vocabulary word they found with their group. Use the word cur for example. Say, “if I was the vocabulary vulture and cur was the word I wanted to share with my group, I would ask everyone to turn to page 4 paragraph 2. I would then read the sentence out loud. Next, I would ask if anyone knows what the word means based off of the paragraph. Then I would share the definition and make sure it made sense with the sentence in the book. Then, I would show everyone my sketch to help them remember the definition.”
The students are very proud of their Travel Journals and they are put out on Exhibit Night. Exhibit Night is when all the students work is put on for show just like a museum and parents come and look at the different work of the students. To make sure the writing in their Travel Journals are correct, Mrs. Smith will have the class sit down on the carpet and together they write the sentence that will go in their travel Journal. Mrs. Smith will use a document camera and write the sentence for all the students to see. The first thing she will do to get the students to think about their sentence is she will ask the class what they have been talking and ask them to list them. By doing this she is getting the students to think back to their reading. When Mrs. Smith is writing out her sentence using the document camera she will say each word as she is writing making sure she pronounces each syllable in the word. I like this concept because the students can see what she is writing on the board and also hear the letter sound while seeing the word being written out. For modeled writing, my teacher will tell the class what she is thinking about writing but she will ask the class what they also think as well. When she does this she is able to get her students on the correct path of thinking and they will either tell her they like this sentence or sometimes a student will come up
The QAR strategy was developed by Taffy Raphael as a means to clarify how students should approach the task of reading the text and answering questions based on it. The strategy displays a three-way relationship between the text, questions, and the reader. The QAR method divides comprehension questions into the two categories: “In the Book”, and “In My Head.” It then breaks each category down into two subcategories. These categories help the student recognize the need to consider both the information in the text and information from their own previous knowledge in order to answer the question. QAR instruction provides a balance for the students so they should not run into the problem of over relying on either their background knowledge or the text information. Often, when students have trouble answering text-based questions, the t...
The article is written in a clear language and offers easy to implement strategies to use in the classroom. I also appreciated the explanations given with the strategies to help educators understand the relevance of trying this method with their students.
Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement (2nd Ed.). Portalnd, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.
One strategy that I found useful in Dr. Connor’s video was the text talk method. Text talk assists teachers in selecting appropriate vocabulary words to help students engage with words in meaningful ways. Dr. Connors presentation on the tier system provides teachers with a framework for choosing appropriate words. Students are exposed to tier one words on a regular basis and tier three words appear in certain contexts. This strategy is useful because it will guide question and response activities in the classroom, and help assess the student’s present level of knowledge.
The strategy that I created was called “Vocabulary Boards”. I created this strategy for my fifth grade science class. I used this strategy after teaching a lesson on the parts of a plant cell and their functions. I opened the lesson with a review of the animal cell from the previous week and I started to introduce the students to the new vocabulary found in the chapter. After introducing the vocabulary and reading the chapter the students were able to work with their elbow partner to research a plant cell part and it’s function. The students were able to use their research skills to find out the function of the cell part. After each group was finished researching we discussed the different cell parts. I gave the students the vocabulary board
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content approaches ―[Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218–253.
Wright, S., Caputa, F., & Fugett, A. (2013).Using e-readers and internet resources to support comprehension. Educational Technology and Society, 16(1), 367-379. Retrieved from Scopus database
It is important that when selecting complex text educators look for specific factors that would meet each reader’s needs. These factors include language proficiency, background knowledge and experiences, and level of motivation. Depending on the factors mentioned, the educators can differentiate the instruction to meet the needs of the students where they could read a text and apply strategies learned. It is important to understand the text complexity because we do want readers to read text which are not challenging enough or that are extremely challenge that would make their self-efficacy low. Therefore, when Fisher & Frey (2012) stated the factors to take into consideration when selecting a text are established, readers would interact with the text. Moreover, the use of comprehension strategies like question and answer relationships (Reutzel & Cooter, 2016) would help the readers comprehend the text as they read
Many students have a hard time when it comes to reading. There are many reading inventions that can help students out. Reading inventions are strategies that help students who are having trouble reading. The interventions are techniques that can be used to assist in one on ones with students or working in small groups to help students become a better reader. Hannah is a student who seems to be struggling with many independent reading assignments. There can be many reasons that Hannah is struggling with the independent reading assignments. One of the reasons that Hannah can be struggling with is reading comprehension while she is reading on her on. Reading comprehension is when students are able to read something, they are able to process it and they are able to understand what the text is saying. According to article Evidence-based early reading practices within a response to intervention system, it was mentioned that research strategies that can use to help reading comprehension can include of activating the student’s background knowledge of the text, the teacher can have questions that the student answer while reading the text, having students draw conclusions from the text, having