Reading Comprehension
Comprehension is at the very core of reading and can be shown when we really understand something.
I talk often about how reading WITH our kids helps create meaningful connections and a stronger bond between parents and their children, and I wanted to share with you what making connections when reading means in the classroom. Making literary connections as we read is how we come to better understand a story. It assists us with our comprehension of the events and people in a particular story and how that pertains to our life.
I have invited an old colleague and dear friend of mine Tahlia Stafford, with whom I have had the great privilege of team teaching to write this article on developing reading comprehension. I call her Ms Honey cause she’s exactly like the sweet Ms Honey from Matilda! Tahlia and I share similar teaching philosophies and see great value in our literacy programs and believe we should integrate books into all aspects of our teaching from Maths to Creative Arts to Science and History (Click here for 5 Fun Read Aloud Games to Play).
Tahlia and I have have an abundant amount of conversations about literacy and the rich-ness of reading. Whenever we meet up, the conversation always turns to books! Today is much the same; about how to help children make connections when reading.
Tell me, what is comprehension and what does it look and sound like when it comes to children reading?
Comprehension is at the very core of reading and can be shown when we really understand something. In the classroom, we teach kids how – the specific processes – to comprehend. It helps our kids to become powerful and thoughtful readers and helps them to think about what they are reading for, why it matters, and what hard work needs to be done to get there.
What it looks and sounds like can be very varied! I am always looking for my students to prove to me that they really comprehend. They tell me about what they are reading, they tell me about how it reminds them of something in their life and often they can tell me what they have learnt about themselves as a reader.
What is ‘reading?’ And why do we do it in the first place?
It always comes back to language and communication. There are many different languages that I don’t understand, but the thing that they all have in common is that they are trying to communicate some kind of meaning to someone else. Whether it is a message for someone, a story or a set of instructions, all of these symbols are trying to communicate something for the purpose of recording meaning. There is no one fool proof way of teaching a child to read. It comes from much exposure to books and stories that they can get from an early age engaging with print and texts. It has to come back to the child and it has to come back to why we are learning to read in the first place; to make meaning and to communicate.
Why are stories so important?
Stories assist us with communication and help us make meaning. Stories are one of the first things kids are exposed to. The sound of their parent’s voices talking to them about what they’re doing, reading them stories before bed, and the stories shared between friends and family (Click here for Read Aloud Tips). Stories help us to make sense of the world. They help us to see things from different perspectives. They help us understand different times and places around the world. In other words, it helps us create meaning about the world around us. And this is communicated from an author to a reader or even just communicated orally by telling a story.
Stories do more than just help a child learn to ‘crack the code,’ they help children to MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD.
Why is it important to build real connections when reading?
I am sure you have all picked up a book at some stage and read a couple of pages and thought that it wasn’t for you. For me, this is a lot of Sci-Fi type books. Similarly, I am sure you have picked up a book and absolutely loved it, could not put it down. Only to find, that your partner or good friend wasn’t at all interested in that same book. I am talking here about connections. Stories can connect us and resonate with us. Have you ever found when you are talking to a friend, and you think ‘yeah, that happened to me too?’ Likewise, when you are reading you might think, ‘yep that sounds exactly like what my friend Kat would do!’ Again, making connections.
There is no one fool proof way of teaching a child to read. It comes from much exposure to books and stories that they can get from an early age engaging with print and texts.
It might surprise you to realise, that young kids don’t always make these same connections when they are reading, and good teachers will help them to make those connections so that it becomes automatic when they are reading by themselves. For kids who have been lucky enough to have visited many places and been around a great variety of people, these connections come more easily. It allows them to fall more deeply into the ‘meaning making’ process. It allows them to become better readers as they look deeply for meaning in their stories and can connect these themes and stories to other parts of their lives.
Can you tell us 3 ways this can look at home?
As you read aloud with your child consider the following things to assist the shared reading experience and to help your child (and yourself) gain a deeper understanding of the story being read.
TEXT-TO-SELF CONNECTIONS:
Connect what is happening in the text to your own life. Connect a type of character as being similar to someone that you know. Connect the setting as being similar to somewhere you have been or situation you’ve been in.
For Example Language to use might sound like this:
‘I see how Jamie is going to school and forgot her lunch. Remember when you forgot your lunch and I had to bring it to you?’
or
‘Isn’t this gorilla cheeky stealing the keys from the zoo keeper! What was your favourite animal you saw at the zoo when we visited the other day?’
TEXT-TO-TEXT CONNECTIONS:
Connections between the text you are reading and another text you have read. It’s not black and white. Maybe a character is similar in personality, maybe the author uses similar language to another book you have read. Maybe the structure – poetic, simple problem and easy-fix conclusion – is similar. For smaller children this may be as simple as looking for and finding the same animals in two different texts.
For Example Language to use might sound like this:
‘I see a duck swimming in a pond in the park in this book and I see a duck walking on a bridge in this book.’
‘Oh this book is just like (that other book)! They both have a friend that moves away. I wonder if she will make new friends, just like Amy did in (the other book)’. (Amy and Louis and Clancy and Millie and the very fine House by Libby Gleeson).
A great way to begin with text-to-text connections is to use books by the same author or with the same character. An example of this could be with Anthony Browne’s ‘Willy’ series; Willy the Wimp, Willy the Champ, Willy the Wizard or Libby Gleeson’s Hannah series; Hannah Plus One, Hannah the Famous, Hannah and the Tomorrow Room. ‘This book has the same character in it! I bet you already know what s/he is like’.
TEXT-TO-WORLD CONNECTIONS:
Think the big outside world. War in a story to the war we are experiencing. Political connections. We usually see this in historical fiction. How does what you have read help you to think differently about the world around you. These ideas go beyond personal experiences.
For Example Language to use might sound like this:
‘This book/article is like a show I saw on TV about rainforests in the Daintree’. (Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker).
There is no one fool proof way of teaching a child to read. It comes from much exposure to books and stories that they can get from an early age engaging with print and texts.
Any final comments?
As a parent, you can keep this in the back of your mind when reading WITH (yes you’ve heard it here before it’s reading ‘with’, not just ‘to’) your child. Start simply with TEXT-TO-SELF CONNECTIONS and SELF-TALK OUT LOUD what you yourself have noticed. ‘This reminds me of when you were playing with your sister and you were building sandcastles! Do you remember that?’ Show your children that you place value in reading and value in making connections to stories through book talk (Click here to read what to look for in Great Quality Picture Books).
Stories do more than just help a child learn to ‘crack the code,’ they help children to MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD, understand and build values, make sense of social attitudes and norms, convey beliefs, understand different cultures and gender roles, and continue to help shape children’s perceptions of reality.
Reading cannot just be about decoding words or you rob children of all of the richness that goes with reading for meaning and enjoyment. Whichever way we look at it, the great thing about reading is that it requires just one thing: our minds and our ability to THINK. How great is that – the things we can train our mind to do! And of course, it requires the subject – something to read.
Now, what to read next?
Happy Reading,
Teri and Tahlia xo
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