Reading comprehension and advance readers?

[cagirlintexas]

My son has been reading now stop for about 3 weeks. I can't get him to stop. He was doing stuff like Frog and Toad but is moving ahead fast and today he picked up the littles and started reading it. I am happy that he is reading and he seems to really be enjoying it. My question is do you worry about comprehension? I try and ask him questions here and there but it seems to annoy him. Plus I haven't read alot of the books he is reading so not exactly sure what to ask him. Can he be reading 3-4 hours a day without comprehending it?

[kiwik]

The teachers at my son school have a big thing about not advancing decoding skills ahead of comphrehension - to the point of forcing kids to read books that are way too easy. I remember reading stuff I didn't understand as I child.

 

But it seems unlikely he would be reading hours on end unless he is getting something from it and if he doesn't get everything the first time he can always read it again. If he is simply decoding hours on end comphrehension has to come eventually, surely.

 

Sorry the skill vs comphrehension is a bit sensitive here as a friends child has been held at the same level for ages and she is getting unhappy about it.

[cagirlintexas]

Very good point! He is so excited about reading right now I don't want to discourage him either.

[kemilie]

I'd agree that if he wants to be reading then he must be getting SOMETHING out of it! :) Sometimes I wonder how much my 6 year old is retaining from some of the big books he's been plowing through lately - it helps me to have him read a random page or two out lout to me every so often, and then explain a bit of the plot happening around that section in the story. It comforts me that he's "getting" it.

[boscopup]

I ask my daughter (6.5) about books in the same way I'd ask a friend, "What happened in that book?" or "You seem to really enjoy that book, what happened?" or "What did so and so do today in the book?" I try to keep it as "unschoolish sounding" as possible, and pose the questions as if I am just merely interested (which sometimes I am!). She balks too if it sounds like I am trying to quiz her. And then she'll come and say, "Mama, guess what happened in the book?" and I share her excitement. One other thing I have done is read books aloud to her that are within her reading level, and stop at a critical point (works with simple chapter books) and she can't stand the suspense and will read on her on. Then I can say, "What happened to so and so?" She knows I love to read as much as she does and would honestly sit down and read some of these books myself.

 

:iagree: I don't ask about every book or even very many books (by now, I know my son has excellent comprehension and it's absolutely nothing to worry about here), but sometimes just to check, I'll ask him in a casual way something about the book, telling him I haven't read it. Just keep in mind that at that age, you may not get a coherent narration out of them. :lol: When DS1 was 6, we did WWE1 (then 2 at age 7), where he started learning how to tell back what we've read. That tested his listening comprehension, but sometimes I had him read the passage himself, so the questions in there tested his reading comprehension. His reading comprehension is miles above his listening comprehension (he did well with the listening part, but when reading it himself, he remembers much, much more).

 

Let your son read, and don't worry about comprehension right now. I see absolutely nothing wrong with reading material above their comprehension level anyway. In order to enjoy it, they must be comprehending something, and if they continue to read at that level, they're going to comprehend more and more of the story, right? They'll also come across words they don't know. My son sometimes has words he doesn't know and doesn't pronounce correctly - that's ok. He's never heard the word before! That's what reading aloud to your child is for. ;) Read aloud books with a good vocabulary, and your child will hear the words pronounced correctly. Then when they see the word in the books they're reading, they'll think, "Aha! Mom read that word in book xyz! I know how to pronounce that!" Ok, in reality, they won't really give credit to Mom. :tongue_smilie:

 

I don't make my son read aloud to me. He *can*, and does so very well. Occasionally he reads aloud some Bible passages (NKJV), and if he can do that well, I'm not concerned about his reading aloud ability. He hates reading aloud anything else because it's soooooo much faster to read to himself. He reads faster than I do. :glare:

[Ellie]

I "check" comprehension with other things we read where feedback is expected, such as history or science. I let reading by reading. :-)

[Paige]

My kids seem to be behind in reading comprehension but I it is more of a memory problem than a comprehension problem. If I sit and discuss as we go through it or shortly after they have read something (we're talking less than 5min) they do really well. If I wait and ask them later or if they have to read questions and then think of the answer, they do poorly. They've recently been tested and found to have significant working memory problems. I think if he's reading it and enjoying it, then he must be comprehending most of it at the time.

[Tanikit]

I don't think there is a child in the world who will willingly decode things they do not understand just for fun - if you want to test this give him a really difficult book and see how quickly he sets it down. Comprehension though has multiple meanings and people can get different levels of comprehension out of a book. Maybe you should start a box where he puts in what he has read and then you read it too and discuss it with him (even if its just: "I really liked this part of this story, what was your favourite part?") That way as he gets older you get a chance to discuss the more detailed intricacies of literature with him and expand his comprehension.

[threedogfarm]

Listen to SWB's lecture on literary analysis. She does a great job explaining literary analysis through the different stages.

[happycc]

For my kids:

1) I listen for laughter. Sometimes my kids laugh at the funny parts to themselves.

 

2) Do you hear your kids talking amongst themselves about the book?

My kids talk to each other about it. Oh you should read this book because.....

 

3)Does your child make references in his daily talk that you don't recognize? My kids blurt out with new sayings, idioms, vocabularies from the books we read that I know we have not talked about.

 

4)Does your child make connections of the books with other parts of his life. My kids mention that a person they meet in real life reminds them of something they read in such and such book.

 

5) Sometimes I ask them if they would recommend me reading that book as well? Or if someone else they know might like to read that book and why?