Meredith Cox, Blog Post #5 Reading Essentials chapter 8 Teach Comprehension

“If we want kids to wind up with comprehension, we have to begin with comprehension.”  It is so important that we begin teaching comprehension in four year old kindergarten classrooms.  Many of my students are lacking in background knowledge and prior experiences to be able to comprehend the text.  It is so important that I expose my students to a wide variety of children’s literature while they are in my classroom. I have to help my students develop the vocabulary to discuss and answer questions about books in my classroom.  I accomplish this mostly by modeling comprehension strategies.  We talk a lot about what good readers do.  We focus on conducting picture walks when introducing a book. I encourage my students that they can do a picture walk themselves when they select a book.  Although they may not be able to read the words of the text, they can read a book by looking at the pictures and telling a story about what they see happening in the book.  When I select a book that I want to focus on comprehension, I try to use a predictable story that is easy for a four year old to comprehend.  This chapter stresses that students are not able to read for meaning if they are struggling over words and concepts.  To relate this to my four year olds, I believe that it is important for me to select children’s literature that is not too “wordy” for my students.  It is important to select a book on their level that they will understand.  After we read a story I usually place the book in our library center for students to read during center time.  I am so proud when I see my students using props and sequencing events that happened in a story that we have read over a long period of time during our shared reading time.