I have not formally taught in the classroom yet, so I was
unsure of different techniques to teach reading comprehension, but after doing
some research and talking to colleagues I have come up with 5 methods I think I
would like to use in my future classroom.
Highlight and Doodle (Main Idea)
I learned this method from a 5th
grade teacher at my school. We were outside at recess and I noticed she had
some copies of a page out of a book and noticed her drawing on it. I asked what
she was working on and she said she was trying out a new way of finding main
ideas and highlighting text and was creating an example for her students. She
had 3 sentences highlighted on the page and in the rest of the text she was
drawing pictures. This method appealed to me because I was that student who had
doodles all over my note book and in the margins of my worksheets. This method
definitely would have caught my attention as a student and got me interested in
finding the main points of the text. One challenge I could see coming from this
method is time, but as the teacher I can make sure students are working efficiently
and spending time on both reading and their doodles. By teaching students
different ways of finding the main idea of text allows them to have a choice in
how they read text and how they pull important information from it.
Mind Movies (Visualizing)
It is important that when students are
reading that they are visualizing what they are reading. I found a great
resource that described it as creating a “mind movie”. Depending on what grade
you are working with and the cognitive skills of the class, we can help teach
them how to visualize by doing a read aloud and tell them what we are
visualizing in our imagination. It is important to think about all 5 senses and
different emotions. We can describe what we are seeing and then ask what they
are seeing in their minds. For older students who can work more independently,
we can have a chart up in the classroom that helps them remember how to
visualize and ask them to draw what they are seeing. See below chart below:
Questions
Questions can be very helpful for reading
comprehension. This can look like a few different forms. It may be giving
students a list of questions to read before beginning the text so they know
exactly what they are looking for and what to focus on. Questions can also be used
during read alouds. It is important to develop their critical thinking skills
by asking surface level questions and deeper level of thinking questions. Below
is a small list of possible questions to get your students thinking.
-
Who is the main character?
-
Who is the main character’s best friend?
-
Why is the main character (sad/happy/mad/etc.)?
-
What is the setting?
-
What is the conflict?
-
How does the conflict get solved?
-
How would you feel if you were the main
character?
-
How do you think the other characters are
feeling?
-
What would you do in this situation?
Choosing the right book
It is important that students know how to
pick a book at their reading level. Below is a chart I found online to help
remind students how to know if the book is just right for them. As a teacher it
is important to have a plethora of books in our class library that are labeled
with reading levels and different genres to appeal to all interests. It is
important for students to be able to identify a good book for them outside the
classroom as well. They want to challenge themselves, but not to the point
where they get discouraged and cannot comprehend what is happening in the
story. See below:
Using Context Clues
Another great strategy I came across in my
research was how to use context clues. I remember learning how to use context
to figure out what a word or sentence meant and this is a strategy I use in my
adult hood to decode what I am reading. I think this is one of the most
important strategies to become a good reader. See below:
Resources:
https://www.weareteachers.com/21-anchor-charts-that-teach-reading-comprehension/
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/6-tips-for-helping-your-child-improve-reading-comprehension#slide-1
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