Comprehension: The Final Component of Literacy

Comprehension

 

Comprehension:  involves constructing meaning that is reasonable and accurate by connecting what has been read to what the reader already knows and thinking about all of this information until it is understood.  Comprehension is the final goal of reading instruction. 

Good Comprehenders:

·         Use a range of comprehension strategies to deepen and enrich their understanding of what they are reading.

·         Are aware of their own thinking processes, and make conscious decisions to use different comprehension strategies as they read, especially when they detect problems in understanding what they are reading

·         Attribute successful comprehension to effort more than ability.

 

What ALL proficient readers have in common is the use of comprehension strategies to help them understand more of what they are reading.

What are Comprehension Strategies?

·         Comprehension monitoring

·         Cooperative learning

·         Using graphic and semantic organizers including story maps

·         Answering questions about what has been read

·         Creating own questions about what has been read

·         Using prior knowledge to connect what they read to what they already know (text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections)

·         Summarizing what they have read

 

Using prior knowledge is very important when comprehending a text.  Stronger comprehenders use their background knowledge to identify or make connections amog ideas in what they are reading.  Readers who lack background knowledge on a specific topic may have greater difficulty answering questions that require inference, and they are usually less able to recall factual information from what they have read.  In order to help the child activate background knowledge, it is important to provide structured class or small-group discussions of the topic of the text before engaging in reading the text. 

 

This is a PowerPoint I created to emphasize the importance of asking questions in demonstrating comprehension.

Asking Questions PowerPoint

This is another PowerPoint I created to explain what DR-TA (Directed Reading/Thinking Aloud)  is and how it can help students comprehend as well as check for comprehension throughout reading.

DR-TA PowerPoint

 

Some Semantic and Graphic Organizers that Can Help Students with Comprehension(Printable):

Main Ideas/ Details (Frog)

Story Line

Story MapHamburger Graphic Organizer

 

 

 



Vocabulary: The Fourth Component of Literacy

Vocabulary

 

Vocabulary: refers to words we need to know to communicate with others. 

There are four types of vocabulary: 

Listening: words we understand when others talk to us	Speaking: words we use when we talk to others
Reading: Words we know when we see them in print (sight words and words we can decode)	Writing: words we use when we write.

 

Why is Vocabulary Important?

Vocabulary is important in word recognition.  Vocabulary also plays an important role in comprehension. Additionally, vocabulary is important for reading to learn as well as learning to read. 

What We Need to Know about Vocabulary Instruction?

·         Vocabulary should be taught directly even though a great deal of vocabulary is learned indirectly.

·         Repeated exposure to new vocabulary is important.

·         New words are learned more effectively in a rich context.

·         Restructuring vocabulary tasks can help students learn new vocabulary. 

·         Active engagement with vocabulary improves learning.

 

Processing New Words in Multiple Ways:

o   Associate new words with known words.

o   Use new words in a sentence.

o   Match definitions to new words.

o   Use new words in different contexts. 

o   Provide children with multiple exposures to new words.

 

How to Choose the Right Words to Teach

§  Identify the words students do not know.

§  Identify the more important words.

§  Identify the words children may not be able to figure out on their own.

§  Identify words that readers will encounter frequently.

 

Some Great Examples of Vocabulary Activities/ Instruction can be found at Reading Resource.

Fluency: The Third Component of Literacy

Fluency

 

Fluency:  recognizing the words in a text rapidly and accurately AND using phrasing and emphasis in a way that makes what is read sound like spoken language.

Why is it important?

There is a close relationship between fluency and comprehension.  That is, students who were low in fluency also showed difficulty comprehending what they read.  A reader must recognize the printed words by decoding and construct meaning from the recognized words for comprehension.  If the word recognition task is hard, all available cognitive resources may be consumed by the decoding task, leaving little or nothing for use in interpretation.  Consequently, for the nonfluent reader, difficulty with word recognition slows down the process and takes up valuable resources and energy that is necessary for comprehension. 

How Can You Help Students Develop Greater Fluency?

Two forms that have shown evidence of improving fluency are repeated reading and guided repeated oral reading.

1.)    Repeated reading involves asking students to read and reread a passage or story.  Through repeated reading, students are able to shift their emphasis from word recognition to comprehension as they become more familiar with the text. 

2.)    Guided repeated oral reading adds greater support for the reader to the strategy of repeated reading.  This guidance/ support may take the form of additional modeling of what fluent reading sounds like, telling students unfamiliar words rather than having them sound the words out, having students read along with a taped version of the story, or helping students see how words can be grouped into meaningful phrases. 

 

The following forms of guidance are proven to produce improved fluency:

·         Telling students unfamiliar words as they encounter them so they can focus on constructing meaning and reading with fluency.

·         Helping children group words in a sentence into meaningful phrases.

·         Having students read along orally as a fluent adult reader reads the story aloud.

·         Using repeated reading with a taped-recorded version of the story proved significant gains in reading performance.  When the training was completed, the students sustained their higher reading levels; however, without further training, they did not continue to improve. 

An Example of Effective Fluency Instruction

Teacher Behavior and Purpose	Example Lesson Excerpt
Explain what students will do.	T: When I’m reading something I really want to understand, I will sometimes read it over again.  Because I get better with practice each time I read it, I can read it faster and understand it better. -          Then, read a story on the students’ independent reading level and read it aloud, emphasizing smooth, rapid reading that includes pacing, phrasing, and emphasis that sounds like natural speech.
Provide guided practice and check skill acquisition.	Then have child(ren) whisper read it by themselves and listen to what they are reading.  Collect data on fluency.
Remind students of the lesson’s purpose and provide additional independent practice.	Before moving on to the next activity, the teacher reminds students of how reading with fluency helps with comprehension, and makes an assignment to provide additional practice that focuses on building fluency.  T: “Remember, we want to read quickly and smoothly because this helps us understand what we’ve read.  Now, I want you to select a book from our class library and read one part of it several times until you think you can read it rapidly, with no mistakes and with good expression.  Then, I want you to read it to one of your reading teammates.  I also want you to take the book home and read it to someone at your house tonight.”

 

Other Activities for Improving Fluency:

-      Have children participate in literature circles

-      Have children participate in reading workshop.

-      Teach about genres and literary features. 

-      Involve kids in author studies.

-      Teach kids to make text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections. 

-      Have children respond to literature through talk and writing.

 

Websites that Can Further Fluency Learning:

Reading Resources: Reading Fluency Activities

Readquarium: Interactive Fluency Activities

 

 

 

Phonics: The Second Component of Literacy

Phonics

 

Phonics: a set of rules that specify the relationship between letters in the spelling of words and the sounds of spoken language.  For the English language, these relationships are predictable, but not completely consistent.  However, they are consistent enough to be very useful to young children in helping them learn to decode unfamiliar words. 

Why Teach Phonics?

Phonics instruction is intended to help young readers understand and use the alphabetic principle.  This principle says that there is a systematic, if sometimes irregular, relationship between graphemes (letters and letter combinations) and phonemes (individual speech sounds).  Effective phonics instruction enables children to use these relationships to spell and read words accurately and rapidly.  However, phonics instruction is never a total reading program. 

 

Examples of Effective Phonics Instruction

In this lesson, a first grade teacher focuses on the phoneme /k/ and how it can be represented by the letter c.

Teacher Behavior and Purpose	Example Lesson Excerpt
Explains what students will do.	T: We’re going to learn a new sound and the letter we use to spell this sound.  This will help us read words that have this specific sound in them.
Provide explicit information about the focus of the lesson.	T: Our new sound is /k/.  Listen for the /k/ sound in these words.  Say each word slowly, emphasizing the beginning sound. Cat, can, cup T: Now I’m going to say the words again as I write them on the board.  The first letter in each of these words says /k/.  Repeat cat, can and cup, again exaggerating the /k/ phoneme each time the letter c is written. T: In these three words, the letter c stands for the sound /k/.  Say the words with me.  The teacher then points to the letter c in each word as the students say the word aloud.
Remind students of the lesson’s purpose, provide appropriate practice, and test skill acquisition.	T: Remember, when we see the letter c, it usually stands for the /k/ sound.  So, if we’re reading and we see a word we don’t know and it has the letter c in it, we will try the /k/ sound first in trying to sound out the word. Listen for the /k/ sound.  Which word has the /k/ sound? Table, candy, or rain? S: candy. Then write the word candy on the board.  T: What letter says /k/ in this word? S: C   Continue with additional examples, pointing out clearly the letter-sound correspondence between the letter c and the /k/ sound.

 

2 Principles of Phonics:

1.)    Phonics instruction should be explicit and systematic. 

2.)    Phonics is a means to an end.  And, that end is reading connected text. 

 

Phonics Video:

 

Phonics Online Game!

More Phonics Activities!

Phonemic Awareness: The First Component of Literacy

Phonemic Awareness

 

 

 

Phonemic Awareness:  the understanding that spoken words are made up of separate units of sound that are blended together when words are pronounced. However, it can also be thought of as skill at hearing and producing the separate sounds in words, dividing or segmenting words into their component sounds, blending separate sounds into words, and recognizing words that sound alike or different. 

Phonemes themselves are the sounds that make up spoken words.  They are also the smallest segments of sounds within spoken language.  

*** It is important to remember that phonemes are speech sounds not letters.  The symbol, a, is not a phoneme, but a letter that has been chosen to represent the phoneme/a/.

 

How Can We Tell if Students are Developing Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic Awareness Task	Demonstration Activity	Example
Isolating Phonemes	Students identify specific sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of words.	Q: What is the first sound in the word cat? A: /c/
Blending Onset-Rimes	Students blend onset-rimes to form real words.	Q: What word can you make by blending these two sounds together? l… and A: land
Blending Phonemes	Students blend phonemes to form real words.	Q: What word is made from blending these sounds? /r/a/g A: rag
Deleting Phonemes	Students identify the word that remains when a phoneme is removed or deleted.	Q: What word is left when we drop the /s/ from the word spot? A: pot
Segmenting Words into Phonemes	Students break a word into its individual sounds by counting the sounds or by moving a marker for each sound.	Q: Show me how many phonemes there are in the word cake. A: three- c/a/k
Adding Phonemes	Students make new words by adding a phoneme to a word.	Q:  What word do you make when you add a /b/ to the word ring? A: bring
Substituting Phonemes	Students make a new word by replacing a phoneme with another phoneme.	Q: Say the word bat.  Now change the /b/ to a /c/.  What is the new word? A: cat

 

 

Why is Phonemic Awareness Importance in Literacy Learning?

-Phonemic awareness helps young children use more advanced ways of learning unfamiliar words.

-Children will be able to use phonemes in decoding what they read.

- Students can use phonemes in new word learning. 

 

What Can You Do to Help a Child Develop Phonemic Awareness?

·         Assess what kinds of phonemic awareness tasks students are able to perform and then plan what they need to work on.

·         Focus on one or two phonemic awareness skills.  Research shows that that is more effective than teaching too many at once, as students might get overwhelmed or confused.

·         Emphasize dividing words into phonemes.

·         Use letters when teaching about phonemes.

·         Connect phonemic awareness instruction to reading and writing.

·         Focus attention on how the mouth changes when pronouncing different phonemes.

·         Use spelling to teach phonemes. 

 

Having Fun with Phonemic Awareness:

Online Games/Resources for Children

 

Clifford's Sound Game:  Find items that start with the same sound as the picture and drop them in the box; audio.

 

Diagraphs: Movies -

/Starfall Movie for /sh/

 

Starfall Movie for /wh/

Starfall Movie for /th/

Starfall Movie for/ch/

 

Elmo Rhymes:  Find the rhyming words; or watch as Elmo finds them.

 

Fuzzy Lion Ears:  Auditory discrimination; children must select missing letter. With mouse over letters, audio is heard.

 

 

Pounce:  A lion cub has to pounce on the word that is given; audio.

 

Reggie the Rhyming Rhino:  A rhyming game that can be played online; need audio.

 

Sounds of the Letters: Each letter is named along with its sound and a picture association.

 

StarfallConsonants Game:  Click on one of the letters to see a "story" about that letter. In the story see 3 pictures that begin with the letter, and sort upper and lower case letters.

 

 

Literacy: What is it? How can we teach it?

What is Literacy and How Can We Teach It?

Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write fluently.

How can we teach all children to read accurately, rapidly, and with comprehension by the end of third grade? The National Reading Panel Report provides an answer to this question.

The National Reading Panel Report (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000) summarized several decades of scientific research that clearly shows effective reading instruction addresses five critical areas:

1.       Phonemic awareness

2.       Phonics

3.       Fluency

4.       Vocabulary

5.       Comprehension