Comprehension

Comprehension: The complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to convey meaning.  University of Oregon - Big Ideas In Beginning  Reading.  Note:  Use the right mouse button and open this link in a new tab or new window.  If you do not and then click on links within the site, you will lose the link to My Breakfast Reading Program.

My Breakfast Reading Program provides stories for each lesson.  The University of Oregon's Big Ideas In Reading, provides a detailed discussion of how to teach comprehension at various grade levels.  Note:  Use the right mouse button and open this link in a new tab or new window.  If you do not and then click on links within the site, you will lose the link to My Breakfast Reading Program.

Many of these techniques can be incorporated when working with the stories associated for each lesson. 

One simple technique is using intonation to answer one or more of the following questions for sentences:  The student rereads the sentence and uses their voice to emphasize the answer to the question.

Example sentence:  The cat is on the bed.

• Who -  Who is on the bed?  The cat is on the bed.  (Not the dog, bird or brother!)
• What - What animal is on the bed?  The cat is on the bed. (Not the dog, gerbil or turtle!)
• When - When does the cat get on the bed?  Not within context, but the student could infer - a higher level skill.
• Where - Where is the cat?  The cat is on the bed.  (Not on the chair, table or tree!)
• Why - Why is the cat on the bed?   Not within context, but the student could infer - a higher level skill.

Using the intonation/question process allows you to check for comprehension while also providing an opportunity for rereading the sentence to build fluency. 

As comprehension skills are increased for isolated sentences, you may ask the related questions (who, what, when, where, why) for multiple related sentences.  The student can retell the answer in their own words and/or find and reread the sentence for confirmation.  This builds skills for finding information in a volume of text.