Reading Comprehension?

[warriormom]

Do you know of a great program that helps with reading comprehension and/or a read-aloud program for K-1st grade? I see a bunch of options, but I want to hear from those with experience.

[Snowfall]

I don't know what you have in mind for reading comprehension at that level, but I love the Pathway Reading books and workbooks. The reading comprehension consists mainly of asking true/false questions, ordering events from the story, and identifying the speaker, but at a K-1st grade level, that seems appropriate to me. Plus, DD likes the books. :)

[ElizabethB]

Actually, I've found through my years of tutoring that what really helps reading comprehension is learning to decode anything.

 

I've had a ton of students who supposedly struggled with reading comprehension that had no problems once they were taught to stop guessing and sound out every word and given the skills to sound out any word in the English language.

 

I do read books to my children before they are reading, but when they are learning to read, I teach them phonics until they can read at the 12th grade level and then they read books--and, they can read anything and sound out anything so it makes reading easy.

 

When you focus when they are starting to learn to read on just teaching phonics, it doesn't take as long as it sounds like it might, my daughter was at that level by the end of K, and an average boy should be at that level by the end of 1st grade.

[rafiki]

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[warriormom]

What phonics program or method do you use to get them to a 12th grade reading level?

[MissKNG]

I don't think you need an actual program for reading comprehension. Just do what Snowfall suggested - asking questions, story recall, etc. That's pretty much what I do with my K'er when reading through our nightly chapter book reading.

 

Some booklist suggestions: check out Sonlight booklists, Magic School Bus books (readers, picture and chapter books) are a hit here, picture books - get a huge assortment from the library. That is pretty much what we do.

 

ETA: I just saw your post...you want to have your K/1st student understanding 12th grade books? Am I understanding your question correctly? Like soon or when they are older?

Edited February 4, 2011 by MissKNG

[FO4UR]

My strategy is teaching phonics very well and reading aloud way above their independent reading level...and narrating...lots of narrating. If they can tell you all about the story, then they comprehend. Our narrations are done orally and casually...and occasionally I write them down and save them for portfolio fodder.

 

You *know* your young dc comprehends a book when they reenact the story with their playmobil and dolls and whatever friends and/or siblings they can convince to play the part of the "bad guy".;)

 

 

I like amblesideonline for book selections for K (year 0) and 1st.

[boscopup]

My strategy is teaching phonics very well and reading aloud way above their independent reading level...and narrating...lots of narrating. If they can tell you all about the story, then they comprehend.

 

:iagree: I was using CLE Reading 100 (it's for sale, btw ;) ), but I switched to just reading aloud one chapter of a good chapter book that's a little on the challenging side, word wise. We narrate a couple times a week. Most days, I let him just read though. I know he comprehends the story. No need to do busywork to test it. It's not like school where the teacher really has no idea if the kid understands or not unless they test for it.

[warriormom]

No, I just like to keep curriculum in mind for the future. I had never heard of a curriculum that teaches phonics to 12th grade. I was just curious about it. ;)

[warriormom]

Actually, I've found through my years of tutoring that what really helps reading comprehension is learning to decode anything.

 

I've had a ton of students who supposedly struggled with reading comprehension that had no problems once they were taught to stop guessing and sound out every word and given the skills to sound out any word in the English language.

 

I do read books to my children before they are reading, but when they are learning to read, I teach them phonics until they can read at the 12th grade level and then they read books--and, they can read anything and sound out anything so it makes reading easy.

When you focus when they are starting to learn to read on just teaching phonics, it doesn't take as long as it sounds like it might, my daughter was at that level by the end of K, and an average boy should be at that level by the end of 1st grade.

 

I am just curious. Which program do you use to 12th grade? Wow, I did not know that phonics went to that grade level. I think that sounds like a great idea. Just keeping things in mind for the distant future

[Cindyz]

I don't know what you have in mind for reading comprehension at that level, but I love the Pathway Reading books and workbooks. The reading comprehension consists mainly of asking true/false questions, ordering events from the story, and identifying the speaker, but at a K-1st grade level, that seems appropriate to me. Plus, DD likes the books. :)

 

 

:iagree: My son loves this series as well. He even likes the workbooks. We are in the first grade reader which I feel is a bit below his level, but he would cry if I gave up on them. We also do a lot of read alouds with casual narration.

[warriormom]

Honestly, I talked to a kindergarten teacher about the fact that my son is about to finish TYCR100EZ lessons. I asked her what would they have to offer for him in the public schools. She said that she teaches comprehension which is just as important. In TYCR100EZ lessons, comprehension is taught at a basic level. I was not sure if I was missing anything. I am a COMPLETE novice at all of this. When she said that, I thought, well maybe they do something different then what I do: a. Ask them questions about the story b. Ask them to look at the pictures and answer some questions. c. Ask them what they think will happen next. d. Ask them if they were in the book what would they do. I was just wondering if I was missing something. :confused:

[shanvan]

about reading comprehension and what I've found from my recent research.

 

I also agree with Elizabeth that continuing to work on phonics and decoding skills are important. I do this for both of my children, but use different materials because of age. With DD (9) I use AAS and BJU Reading. With DS (12) I use Megawords -- Ds has made great progress with this and we'll continue to use it; and CLE Reading -- good mostly independent instruction, though I don't like this enough to use again next year.

 

My post below is from this thread which discussed BJU Reading. I am continuing with BJU because it incorporates all the explicit instruction necessary for my DD. I continue to give her further explicit instruction in comprehension strategies during family read alouds and sometimes with her independent reading, but BJU makes it easy for be to be consistent.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2384560#post2384560

 

Finally, my previous post...

 

I've been doing some research about reading comprehension this weekend and have decided I will definitely continue with BJU for DD. From my reading, many studies have shown that the approach and types of exercises in BJU Reading (and other curriculum too) are the very exercises that explicitly teach comprehension. These tend to help children who have difficulty more than implicit instruction. My DD had some difficulty learning to read and I think she needs that explicit instruction, which TOG does not provide. That is not to say that I could not apply those ideas to the TOG assignments--but it would be more work. Here is a link to an interesting study which has made me rethink how I approach reading instruction..

 

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-129015444.html

 

 

These are some direct quotes from that study. I have bolded and underlined what I found to be the most interesting parts.

 

" Students with RD (reading disabilities) possess inefficient strategies that they use in an inflexible manner (Wong, 1996), are often unaware of the strategies good readers use instinctively (Williams, 2000), and are deficient in the spontaneous use of strategies (Torgesen, 1977). There is general agreement that students with RD need strategy instruction. Thus, two recent reviews of the reading comprehension literature on students with LD have provided strong data suggesting that strategy instruction improves the reading comprehension skills of these students (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1997). The issue that is not as clear is the level of explicit instruction required for students with RD to maximally benefit their reading comprehension skill. It is this issue that this study was designed to address.

 

Explicit vs. implicit strategy instruction.

 

 

Explicit instruction may be conceptualized in at least two ways. On the one hand, explicit instruction involves the overt, teacher-directed instruction of strategies, including direct explanation, modeling, and guided practice in the application of strategies. In addition, explicit strategy instruction may include an overt and systematic transference of the control of strategies from teacher to student. There is a current departure from more explicit forms of strategy instruction to instruction in which students with LD are exposed to a "more natural, constructionist, and less transparent modeling of strategies" (Gersten et al., 2001, p. 308). Duffy (2002) found that the current reading literature leans more toward implicit techniques for instructing students in reading comprehension strategies and focuses minimally on the direct explanation of strategies."

 

 

 

And the first chapter of another publication which discusses explicit instruction.

 

 

http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onli...5/chapter1.pdf

 

Hope this helps others considering how to approach reading instruction.

 

Shannon

[shanvan]

Several helpful articles I printed recently about comprehension...

http://www.ciera.org/library/presos/2001/2001MRACIERA/nduke/01cmndk.pdf

 

 

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479

 

 

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/779

[warriormom]

The more that I think about it since talking with the teacher reading comprehension is a vital skill with any pursuits my children may have.

[Cindyz]

Can BJU be done secularly?

[shanvan]

Can BJU be done secularly?

 

I think many of the comprehension type questions would include moral, if not Christian content, but the instruction related to things like, say, "How to Scan Before Reading", or "How to turn the first paragraph into a question, so you can then find the answer" would be easy to keep secular. There must be a comparable curriculum out there that is secular. I hope someone else will chime in with one. Seriously, though, you really can do the comprehension instruction on your own. Curriculum just makes it easy when you feel braindead-- not that I ever feel that way --or anyone else on this board either. :tongue_smilie:

Just as an aside, I never had to worry about comprehension with DS. He was one of those readers that instinctively interacts with the text. DD definitely has to be taught. I tried the approach of letting her read a lot to see if it would develop naturally. It hasn't. She really does need instruction and I suspect there is an LD at work. However, many children do not.

 

Shannon

[ElizabethB]

No, I just like to keep curriculum in mind for the future. I had never heard of a curriculum that teaches phonics to 12th grade. I was just curious about it. ;)

 

Webster's Blue Backed Speller.

 

From Webster's 1828 Dictionary for the word spelling-book: ""n. A book for teaching children to spell and read."

 

You teach syllables, then 1 syllable words, then they have multi-syllable words divided by syllables so that children know if the vowel is long or short. Also, they are arranged by accent pattern so the children learn how to schwa unaccented syllables, this is helpful to get a young student or and ESL student correctly sounding out 3 to 7 syllable words they have not yet seen.

 

Here is how Webster's Speller is going with my son for K. I don't expect him to be reading multi-syllable words for a few months. My daughter was at the 3 syllable word point by now. (But, my son is far ahead of where my daughter was at the same age in math at this point.)

[Cindyz]

When I asked about comprehension previously for this same exact reason (a K teacher stressed the importance of comprehension for my reading K child), it was recommended by another forum poster that I consider "Teaching the Classics". I looked into it at the time and was very interested. My finger is currently hovering over the "add to cart" button. :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.centerforlit.com/

[Hunter]

Dramatized versions of audio books are amazing for teaching comprehension. My younger son had the KJV Bible, Pilgrim's Progress and the Aeneid. I'm not sure what else is out there for other dramatized Great Books.