Detra Stevens' December Post Chapter 8 Teach Comprehension

“If we want kids to wind up with comprehension, we have to begin with comprehension”.  One thing this chapter talks about is talks about is getting students to truly understand what they are reading.  We should not get caught up into getting students to recognize words.  We should focus on getting them to discuss big ideas of the story, discussion about characters and the author’s purpose.

I feel like I do a good job with this.  At the beginning of school I was the teacher who focused a lot on words and we have to know the words to be a good reader.  This is true, but it is more to being a good reader.  We have to develop and model how to go deeper than words.

I use a lot of the strategies identified in this chapter as being key for achieving full understanding when we read.  I need to work a lot on getting my students to apply these strategies to their reading.  This seems difficult for kindergarten students, but I think with a lot of modeling, we will get there!

“Students don’t automatically comprehend just because they can read the words.”  This is so true.  I have several students who are excellent readers.  When asked questions about what they have read, they have a hard time answering.

The most useful strategy is rereading.  This is so true!  Comprehension goes up when we allow a student to reread.  I can see a difference in comprehension when I reread a story to the class.  The children always comprehend more after the first reading.  So there is power behind rereading.

 

This was a very interesting chapter.  I will continue modeling and more modeling to help develop comprehension.