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.