| Teaching Comprehension Strategies |
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"Traditionally, there has been a tendency among educators to view the primary grades as the time to hone word-recognition skills, with comprehension developed in the later grades. Increasingly, this view is rejected, with many demonstrations that interventions aimed at improving comprehension--that is, interventions beyond word-recognition instruction--do, in fact, make an impact during the primary years." (Michael Pressley,
"Comprehension Instruction: What Makes Sense Now, What Might Make Sense Soon." Reading Online, 5(2).)
Strategies Are Effective. Thanks to the research done since the 1970s, we now know that comprehension and decoding are both important instructional goals in a literacy program--there is no need to choose between the two. And strategy instruction is not just for older students. Researchers have found that in the primary grades, comprehension improves most when teachers actively model strategic reading behaviors that students can then use independently while reading. Pressley (2000) found that this approach, embedded within various parts of a classroom lesson, helps to foster active engagement of the reader, and leads to higher comprehension test scores. These cognitive reading comprehension strategies include:
- Predicting and prior knowledge activation
- Questioning during reading
- Constructing mental images
- Thinking aloud
- Summarizing
- Clarifying
How to Begin. Several approaches have been developed over the past 20 years to help teachers model and scaffold use of reading strategies, starting with reciprocal teaching, and continuing through transactional strategies instruction, cited by the National Reading Panel (2000) as "exemplary work in comprehension instruction." The links below describe these different approaches and offer additional background and resources to use them. You can also start modeling strategies right away with the Comprehension Puppets featured in this newsletter, designed especially for use with primary students.
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Comprehension Strategy Activities
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Introduce four powerful reading comprehension strategies with our Comprehension Puppet patterns and activities for the whole class, Guided Reading groups, Reading Buddies, and more.
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Product Spotlight: Comprehension Puppets
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Welcome The Fabulous Four Reading Comprehension Puppets:
Paula the Predictor, Quincy the Questioner, Clara the Clarifier, and Sammy the Summarizer. These four new "characters" will delight, captivate and teach your students essential comprehension strategies. The Fabulous Four will bring these strategies to life for your young students.
The Fabulous Four represent "good reader" strategies that proficient readers use to understand text. These four strategies are part of a larger comprehension reading scope and sequence that also includes making connections, previewing, visualizing, and evaluating. While all good reader strategies are important, the Fabulous Four form a powerful core group that improves comprehension for students of all ages. Primary teachers love the simplicity of introducing the core strategies using the Fabulous Four puppets.
(From the Fabulous Four guidebook, by Lori Oczkus).
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| Web Special |
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May specials, online only! |
Reading Comprehension Puppets
Regularly $45.00; Special $39.95
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Next Month's Topic: The Home-School Connection
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It's no secret that involving parents and guardians with their child's school improves student outcomes. But getting there can be tricky. Next month, we'll offer links and resources to help improve the connection from school to home, and from home to school.
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Quote of the Month
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"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
--Albert Einstein
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