Comprehension and the Emergent Reader
We need to share a variety of activities with our youngest readers to show them that reading is not just words, it is about meaning and understanding. Comprehension should be taught WITH decoding instruction, not after. Fortunately, there are countless wonderful picture and trade books that can help us to teach comprehension with our emergent readers. Teachers should model their deep thinking, using rich language to help our youngest students as they begin to experience reading comprehension.
Environmental Print
Children are surrounded by print in their everyday lives-the W on the Walmart logo, STOP on the sign at the end of their streets, food labels, cartoons, cereal boxes, etc. By bringing these outside of school text examples into the classroom, we can teach children early reading skills with a familiar source.
Using Song Lyrics to Teach Comprehension
Children love music. We use familiar tunes to teach many concepts in our classrooms, including the ABC's. Song lyrics can also be used to teach comprehension. The message in a song such as You Are My Sunshine can be applied to our students' personal lives.
Having conversations about the meaning of the song lyrics, and illustrating the lyrics, helps to develop comprehension for our youngest students. It is important that the teacher asks the students open-ended questions when discussing a song. Using a Game to Develop Comprehension
Having children design games based on a book is a fun way to test comprehension. You can either use a standard already made game board or have students design their own. Writing the questions will show how well the students understand the book. And really, who doesn't love to play a game?
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Character Traits
Book selection is very important when working with emerging readers. Our selections should hold the students' interest, encourage deep thinking and have the possibility to change how our students see the world.
Our first goal when reading aloud to children is to foster a love of reading. Fortunately, there are many wonderful examples of good quality literature to choose from. Many of these books include main characters with traits that we want to share with students. Graphic organizers can be used to show students how one character is similar and different from another character. For a list of books with associated character traits, see: http://www.lessonswithlaughter.com/2012/04/character-traits-and-books-that-teach.html Using Retells of Read Alouds
Children love to be read to. Asking a student to retell a story will give a lot of information about his/her comprehension. Having a student include an illustration of the story helps to assess their comprehension as well. Linda Hoyt (2005) includes an example of a student retell record on page 432 of Spotlight on Comprehension: Building a Literacy of Thoughtfulness.
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References
Hoyt, L. (2005). Spotlight on comprehension: building a literacy of thoughtfulness. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Hoyt, L. (2005). Spotlight on comprehension: building a literacy of thoughtfulness. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.