Comprehension is something that is easier to teach when a child is reading something that is of interest to them. In Gill's article there was a question that was asked to teachers and it was when do they comprehend best? The answer was when they are reading something of interest to them, or when it is a book of their choice. I think that's true for everyone. It is much easier to comprehend something if it is something that interests you. So, giving students books to read that they have no desire to read is going to make it much harder for them to comprehend what the book is saying.
Another thing that is talked about in Gill's article is how prior knowledge is important when trying to comprehend. I think that prior knowledge is important for almost every topic we have discussed in class so far. Without prior knowledge a lot of things in reading would be very difficult.
This worksheet is one that I think is good for starting to comprehend things. I saw something like this when I was doing my reading inquiry and I think it really helped the students to understand difficult words.
I think it also is very important to make readings of interest to students. Learning strategies of how to incorporate this is crucial!
ReplyDeleteI agree about the prior knowledge! Prior knowledge can help children in so many aspects of reading and life in general!
ReplyDeleteI agree that prior knowledge is essential. I also think it is important for teacher's to help students who maybe don't have some of the same prior knowledge. This is difficult to do but I think it is a part of the job. We want all student's to be successful and sometimes that means modifying lesson's and activities.
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