Learning Reading Comprehension Skills
"My child reads but she doesn't seem to understand what she reads. What can I do?"
Time4Learning teaches reading comprehension as part of an overall language arts program for enrichment, remediation, summer use, or homeschooling. The key reading comprehension skills, interacting with the text versus just decoding it, is taught by Time4Learning as an integrated language arts program including phonics, vocabulary, fluency, writing, grammar, and critical thinking.
How Can Reading Comprehension be Taught?
If you are like most parents, you have forgotten that you had to develop reading comprehension skill. Much like learning to drive, reading comprehension becomes automatic and skilled readers forget that they had to develop their reading comprehension skill. The key to teaching reading comprehension is developing the habit of "interacting" with the text and monitoring one's understanding.
By "learning to read", most parents mean that the child is decoding words. But understanding what you read, "reading comprehension," comes from developing a set of skills distinct from phonics "word decoding" skills. In fact, children should start building comprehension skills when they are still having others read to them.
Learning reading comprehension requires a strategy where lesson plans progressively develop and reinforce reading comprehension skill.
Today, the standardized high-stakes tests, such as the Florida FCAT, the Texas TAKS, the Ohio OGT, and the California Stanford 9 and SABE/2, to name a few, have focused attention by parents and educators on systematic mastering of reading skills.
What is reading comprehension?
Reading comprehension skills separates the "passive" unskilled reader from the "active" readers. Skilled readers don't just read, they interact with the text. To help a beginning reader understand this concept, you might make them privy to the dialogue readers have with themselves while reading.
Skilled readers, for instance:
- Predict what will happen next in a story using clues presented in text
- Create questions about the main idea, message, or plot of the text
- Monitor understanding of the sequence, context, or characters
- Clarify parts of the text which have confused them
- Connect the events in the text to prior knowledge or experience
Time4Learning's Strategy for Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills
With Time4Learning, these comprehension skills are taught and reinforced in a number of ways. A few examples:
When approaching a text, skilled readers are already reading the title and building ideas about what the text will say. There are Time4Learning lessons which explain this and help students develop this habit. Time4Learning teaches students the important habit of evoking their prior knowledge and information on a subject when they read to enhance comprehension.
Once a student has started reading a text, the reader should confirm, modify, or refine their idea about the main idea. They should identify the main idea. Time4Learning teaches and provides significant practice in distinguishing the main idea in a paragraph or essay from supporting detail or other components.
The meaning of certain vocabulary terms and expressions in context can aid or impede reading comprehension. Time4Learning teaches students to note confusing terms, make assumptions about their meaning, and monitor whether their assumptions lead to better understanding and confusion. A variety of strategies are taught for dealing with vocabulary while reading.
Time4Learning teaches the vital skill for readers of monitoring their understanding as they proceed through the text. All readers occasionally fail to grasp the meaning of certain passages. Skilled readers quickly note their need to review what they've read and return to problematic passages to gain understanding.
There are comprehension exercises which helps students understand how the strategy that skilled readers approach, read, and interpret text. The software will introduce a reading comprehension software will first introduce a theme by having an interactive exercise teaching the vocabulary and subject. Then the comprehension software will present a story. For the younger children, it is read to them as they follow the text. As they advance, their reading is supported in various ways by having each word, when clicked, read to them. By third grade, only key vocabulary words will have hotlinks for support. Register Now with Time4Learning's Money-Back No-Risk Starter Offer.
Time4Learning's Lesson Plans for Teaching Reading
With Time4Learning, comprehension skills are systematically taught. For prereaders, their listening comprehension skills are built by having them prepare to hear a story, reading them the story, and the following up with questions to strengthen their reading comprehension skill. Most importantly, hints about listening strategy are given so they improve. This same pattern continues. For instance, the second grade starts with a thematic unit on spiders. The first half of the until teaches reading comprehension. Before even reading the story, there is an interactive exercise called Background where the vocabulary and ideas relevant to the story are presented. There is also a printable worksheet for reinforcement. Then, the each story is available in several versions:
- Read to Me - The story is read aloud with the text and pictures visible
- Read Along - The story is read with the text highlighted so the child's eyes follow the text
- Read by Myself - The story is not read but all of the words can be clicked to hear hear them spoken. There is also vocabulary help on key words.
- I Can Read - There is only vocabulary help on the key words
The story is also available on a printable worksheet. After reading the story, there is an interactive exercise to build reading comprehension skill and to provide a reading comprehension strategy.
The second half of the spider unit teaches language mechanics and writing skills. In second grade for instance, the language mechanics interactive activities teach segmenting syllables, advanced phonics such as blending, rhyming, and prewriting skills through the Story Creator exercise. Writing has become increasingly important for a number of reasons including that writing has been shown to help increase reading comprehension skill.
Middle School Reading Comprehension - The lessons in building reading comprehension in middle school follow the same basic principles but teach students to apply them to increasingly complex text. Reading passages get longer and are frequently excerpted from classic literature. There are some short stories that are included in their entirety. The issues relating to vocabulary and comprehension are developed by building more ability to discern meaning by teaching word roots and context clues. The vocabulary lists grow increasingly complex and longer. Reading comprehension overlaps with lessons on critical thinking and literary analysis.
The Importance of Learning Reading Comprehension Skills
Reading comprehension skills increase the pleasure and effectiveness of reading. Strong reading comprehension skills help in all the other subjects and in the personal and professional lives. The high stake tests that control advancement through elementary, middle, and high school and which determine entrance to college are in large parts, a measure of reading comprehension skills. And while there are test preparation courses which will provide a few short-cuts to improve test-taking strategies, these standardized tests tend to be very effective in measuring a readers reading comprehension skills. In short, building reading comprehension skills requires a long term strategy in which all the reading skills areas (phonics, fluency, vocabulary) will contribute to success. Register Now.
Software and on-line reading compression programs provide great opportunities for children to follow along in the text as the program reads aloud and for timed readings. Here is an example of a read-along story used by Time4Learning to help teach reading comprehension skills. With Time4Learning, these comprehension skills are taught and reinforced through animated lessons, printable worksheets, interactive activities, and assessments. Start a membership today.
To Learn More about Learning Reading Comprehension Skills
SEDL provides some of the most useful online information for understanding the reading process. Today's Learner has interesting articles on reading including one on The History of Teaching Reading. The Time4Learning Newsletter provides an excellent introduction to teaching reading. Software and on-line reading compression programs provide great opportunities for children to follow along in the text as the program reads aloud and for timed readings. Here is an example of a read-along story used by Time4Reading to help teach reading comprehension skills. With Time4Learning, these comprehension skills are taught and reinforced through animated lessons, printable worksheets, interactive activities, and assessments.. Start a membership today.
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