Mind Benders and Reading Comprehension

[Parrothead]

I realize that there has to be some level of comprehension to figure out the Mind Benders. As they progress is there enough reading comprehension to not do anything else if your kiddo seems to be lacking comprehension skills?

 

I was thinking about starting some kind of formal comprehension workbook in 5th grade. Dd will read something and when I ask her what happened in the story she tells me, "I don't remember." Even asking her step-by-step, what happened first, second, etc.

 

If you think a more formal comprehension course needs to be done, can you recommend one.

 

ETA: Does anyone use the Case of the Red Herring books? I'm wondering if they would be a fun way to get dd's comprehension levels up.

[Ria]

I wouldn't put reading comprehension and Mind Benders into the same category. MB are logic, pure and simple. The amount of written material is little, and the clues are not at all obvious. Success with Mind Benders is not a matter of understanding what was read (I've seen even excellent readers w/ excellent reading comprehension be totally flummoxed by Mind Benders), but being able to take what is and isn't said and draw logical conclusions from that information.

 

Ria

[inashoe]

Did you do SOTW for history ?

If so, did you use the questions for comprehension / listening skills in the AG ?

How did he/she do with these ?

 

Is your child's reading comprehension difficulties only when he/she reads the materials him/herself, or when you read it aloud to the child.

 

I wouldn't recommend Mind Benders for a child who has reading comprehension difficulties.

 

I have found the Remedia publication books to be good in general, but I have not used their Reading Comprehension books. The link is http://www.rempub.com/results.cfm?category=40&is_sub=25

[Parrothead]

Did you do SOTW for history ?

If so, did you use the questions for comprehension / listening skills in the AG ?

How did he/she do with these ?

 

Is your child's reading comprehension difficulties only when he/she reads the materials him/herself, or when you read it aloud to the child.

 

I wouldn't recommend Mind Benders for a child who has reading comprehension difficulties.

 

I have found the Remedia publication books to be good in general, but I have not used their Reading Comprehension books. The link is http://www.rempub.com/results.cfm?category=40&is_sub=25

Yes, we did SOTW and she did fine when I read to here. The difficulty has come lately with independent reading.

 

I was looking more at the Critical Thinking company's language arts area and they have some comprehension books that look pretty good.

 

I'll check out your link. Thanks.

[abbeyej]

There *is* a difference in reading comprehension and listening comprehension -- and some children can read the words on the page just fine and still not grasp what is said. So in that way, your dd isn't completely alone. And it doesn't necessarily mean she isn't reading just fine -- some kids really just have comprehension issues when they're reading silently.

 

MindBenders (or Perplexors from MindWare are the same format but you get ~4x more puzzles in each book for about the same price) are certainly a decent introduction to logic puzzles / teasing out clues... But I wouldn't call them "reading comprehension". Do use them, but I think you're on the right track to include some of CTP's reading comprehension workbooks as well...

[Sunshine State Sue]

ETA: Does anyone use the Case of the Red Herring books? I'm wondering if they would be a fun way to get dd's comprehension levels up.

I bought Red Herrings but never got past the first few lessons. IMO, they are much better suited to a group. They have plays on words that are nowhere near obvious. For example, there was a common word, like bell, that had a double meaning for some part of a ship. If you don't have a group to pool resources, it's worthless.

[Parrothead]

I bought Red Herrings but never got past the first few lessons. IMO, they are much better suited to a group. They have plays on words that are nowhere near obvious. For example, there was a common word, like bell, that had a double meaning for some part of a ship. If you don't have a group to pool resources, it's worthless.

Thanks for the info, Sue.

[Herding Cats in NC]

I was looking more at the Critical Thinking company's language arts area and they have some comprehension books that look pretty good.

 

 

I think that the Reading Detective books from them are great. I like that the questions aren't obvious (at least in the A1 book), and that they often have to give the number of the sentence that best supports their answer - so there's no way to just guess your way through the multiple choice questions (it also has short answer questions).

 

The book for grades 3-4 (Beginning Reading Detective) starts off with "How to be a Reading Detective", and then has a section on drawing conclusions and making inferences. I'm planning on using it with my dd8 for extra practice.

 

Hope this helps!

[Parrothead]

I think that the Reading Detective books from them are great. I like that the questions aren't obvious (at least in the A1 book), and that they often have to give the number of the sentence that best supports their answer - so there's no way to just guess your way through the multiple choice questions (it also has short answer questions).

 

The book for grades 3-4 (Beginning Reading Detective) starts off with "How to be a Reading Detective", and then has a section on drawing conclusions and making inferences. I'm planning on using it with my dd8 for extra practice.

 

Hope this helps!

Thanks. It does help a lot. They aren't very expensive, but I want to get my money's worth. That is hard to do when I can't get my hands on them before hand.