Reading Comprehension

Last week’s post introduced concepts related to reading comprehension.  (Enhancing Reading Comprehension: Part I)

As previously noted, comprehension is an interactive process.

The interaction involves ideas, concepts, images, background experience, fund of knowledge, level of word awareness (vocabulary) and motivation, among other things.

Comprehension is also compromised by poor reading rate, accuracy and fluency. That is, dyslexic children struggle with reading comprehension because they can’t read the words accurately.

To address comprehension weaknesses, there are different ways of targeting and improving this skill.

Among the most important ways to develop comprehension is to increase the child’s vocabulary.

There are various websites and  books on the market with titles such as the, “The Essential Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know.”

I like going “old school” by  putting such words on index cards and practicing them to the point where the child automatically tells you what a given word means and how to use it in a sentence.

Here are a few that are on a list that a seventh grader should know:

• improbable
• admirable
• advocate
• compel
• initiate

Along with enhancing vocabulary, a central skill with comprehension is developing the ability to infer or “read between the lines.”

Helping your child to go beyond the facts in a text is essential. Without becoming burdensome, ask the child a lot of “why” questions, such as “Why do you think the character behaved the way he did?”    Asking many “why do you think” questions pushes the child to go beyond the concrete or literal meaning of the text.

You also may want to follow up such questions with, “Really, what gave you that idea?” or “That’s interesting.  How did you come up with that conclusion?”

With questions such as these, you are trying to help the child to form an opinion or a conclusion that is based on the text and not just pulled out of the air.

The point of this process is not to overly badger your child with questions, but to try to encourage a type of thought process and a dialogue around what the child is reading. Keeping the questions light and maintaining a tone of curiosity is the goal.

Takeaway Point

At its best, comprehension is not a regurgitation of facts, but an interactive process. Enhanced vocabulary and inferential questions help develop this understanding, encouraging a thought process that pushes for considering and reflecting.

When Kids struggle with comprehension it is interesting that often there is an overlap in “real life,” that is in the way the child interacts in his personal world.  In this era of  quickly labeling and pathologizing behavior automatically  as “ADHD,” this overlap is something rarely considered, but I think it is worth reflecting on its implications.

Here’s an example.

12 year old Liam is a boy who recently got into a lot of trouble when he used inappropriate language (along with other inappropriate behaviors) on the bus.  When the bus driver tried to correct him, Liam doubled down and got mouthy and defensive.

In other words, Liam showed a lot of bad judgment.

Compounding this, when Liam’s parents attempted to discipline him, rather than become low-key and contrite, he became belligerent, melting down while punching walls.

(I know, everyone’s pulling out their, “ADHD  cards” and quickly putting him on medication, but I’m not so sure.  We need to dig a little deeper.)

Upon meeting Liam, he comes across pretty straight-forwardly and readily admits he has a problem managing anger.  Particularly noteworthy, Liam felt bad about what happened.  He regretted his behavior.

So, what’s the connection with reading comprehension?

When I evaluate Liam in different areas, something that jumps out at me is how little time he spends reflecting on questions asked of him and how weak he was at forming an inference while reading.

In other words, he jumped to conclusions based on very little data and he wasn’t oriented toward being reflective or considered in his approach to the reading process, just like he wasn’t being thoughtful on the bus or with his parents.

Liam needs to learn to “read the signals,” to slow down, to consider and evaluate.  I also understand that’s a lot easier said than done.

When reviewing the assessment with Liam and his parents in pretty direct terms (with a hint of a New York accent), this is what I said:

“Look, Liam, here’s the deal.  We need to work on your inferencing skills – that is, we need to help you pay attention to the clues or to ‘read the signals.’  Like on the school bus, you started to act out to try and get everyone thinking you were funny and you didn’t think it through.  You didn’t assess the consequences.”

(Believe it or not, Liam is actually taking it in and nodding.  He gets it, so I continue.)

“Since you didn’t think it through or consider what you were doing, you got in a lot of trouble.  You were furious with your parents even though they were 100% right.  Here’s the funny thing, when I tested your reading skills, you did the same exact thing.  Like when I asked you questions that did not have a straightforward or direct answer, you had no clue.  How come?  Because you weren’t reading the clues, just like on the school bus.  This is stuff we can work on.  You can get better in these skills.  Finally, we can work on helping you manage your anger better, since you readily admit you have problems with it.”

Liam felt good about what was said to him and his personal “battery” was recharged, since he was told these were skills he could improve.  He was determined to start “reading the clues.”

 Takeaway Point

There may be a connection as to how a kid behaves on the school business, manages emotions and reads a book.  Look for common themes.

I’m not exactly sure when it occurred, when we collectively decided to drain the joy out of reading in early childhood, but it happened some time ago perhaps when we weren’t looking.

The expression about the frog being boiled by degrees so he won’t jump out of the pot, applies.

When it comes to reading we’ve been boiled by degrees and we weren’t aware of it.

The evidence for this comes from the dreadful worksheets brought to me by parents on a daily basis that are passed off as sham literature.

This week’s blog was prompted by parents who brought me “reading material’ on their child, young Brody, a second grader.   As I perused the packet of dreadful, there was a two page “story” that Brody was assigned.  The story had no redeeming value that authentic stories or literature would have, but what was even worse was what young Brody had to do after reading the story.  There were 20 multiple choice questions for the poor kid to slog through.  20!!!

The last time I looked, early second grade was not competing with the SAT.  Here’s one of the questions:

“If stir means “mix by moving around with a spoon” then stirred means

1. Not mixing by moving around.
2. Mix by moving around with a spoon
3. Mixed by moving around with a spoon
4. Mixing by moving around with a spoon.

Mind numbed yet?  I can just picture the author of this test congratulating himself for slipping in a way to learn about present and past tense.

Imagine 20 of these to sort out?

Keep in mind that I have not yet met or evaluated Brody, but the odds are pretty good that he has a reading problem.  Even if Brody turns out to be an adequate reader upon evaluation, the story and the 20 questions would have been stultifying to the best of students.

Somewhere along the line we got the notion that worksheets passing off as literature with their   accompanying tests were the answer, that each question somehow would bring the child to the next level of reading development.

I’m not buying it.

Twenty multiple choice questions following a faux story leads to turned-off kids, shutting them down.

Real literature ignites the imagination and gets the conversation going.  There’s meat on the bones.  Great stories motivate kids to read more great stories.

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