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My 2nd grader cannot do WWE 1


lorisuewho
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My 2nd grader is nearing the end of Writing with Ease 1, but still cannot answer the questions at the end of the passage.  Even if I read the passage numerous times, she really has no idea.  When I read aloud any books, unless there are pictures or diagrams, she has very little comprehension.  On the other hand, if she reads a book herself, she can give a very  good retelling.  I am quite frustrated with her lack of auditory comprehension, and I'm not sure what else to do.  We work on narration all the time, but she just cannot do it unless she has read it herself (and it is on her reading level or easier).

 

Should I move onto WWE 2 next year?

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I wouldn't move on.  I'd take the time and slowly work on auditory comprehension more, starting with visualizing techniques.  Have her close her eyes and give her one simple sentence like "The cow eats grass in the field."  Ask her what she sees: how big is the field?  What color is the cow? What is the weather?  Anything to help her picture the sentence better.  Work up to two sentences, and slowly to a short Aesop's fable to have her sequentially tell it back.  But I wouldn't move on to more difficult until after she could grasp the foundation.

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There is a difference between memory and comprehension.  The WWE questions test memory.  My son, who had very good listening and reading comprehension also had trouble with the questions.  Heck, *I* had trouble with the questions when they were about trivial details, which they were most of the time.  I recommend skipping the questions or coming up with your own that focus on the bigger picture.

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What if you had her look for the answer in the passage? DS is great with the big picture but can miss the details, like how many peas were under the mattress. I read him the passages and ask the questions and he knows if he can’t get it he has to look at the passage. I figure that in itself is a good exercise plus he’d rather not do it so he has an incentive to listen carefully.

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I actually use it differently than intended. I don't read the passage aloud. He prefers to read it himself, so I let him do that and then ask the questions.

I would work on auditory comprehension separately with much shorter passages that you pick out. It's still an important skill to work on.

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I actually use it differently than intended. I don't read the passage aloud. He prefers to read it himself, so I let him do that and then ask the questions.

 

I would work on auditory comprehension separately with much shorter passages that you pick out. It's still an important skill to work on.

 

I think this is good advice. 

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I'd try reading the questions to her first, or letting her read them, then reading the passage to see if she can pick up on the answers. I'd also work on reading ONE sentence then having her paraphrase it, then another, etc. Then two sentences, then three, then the whole passage, as her stamina builds. 

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One trick I used that worked (before I decided to scrap the questions and just have her summarize) was to tell her, before I read the passage, to make a movie in her head of what I was reading.  Then I read.  At the end, I said, now rewind your movie.  (She literally did this in her head, it appeared to me.)  Then she was able to answer the questions perfectly.

 

But eventually I decided that I found the questions annoying and just did the copywork and summaries in WWE.  We used a series of workbooks called Comprehension Plus, if I recall correctly, to work on reading comprehension.

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