Conclude: What Did I Just Read?

The final comprehension strategy is to conclude or summarize.  Have you ever been reading something, stop, and suddenly realize you have no idea what you just read?  It’s because you were simply decoding words without thinking about the content.  Some beginning readers get so caught up in the challenge, the game, of decoding that they forget to pay any attention to the content of the text.

I have actually had children in class who enjoy decoding entire books without having a clue as to the meaning.  The sad thing is that their parents think they are reading.  Sadder yet, the children think they are reading.  But if the teacher thinks the child is reading, they’re in a peck of trouble.

A recent teaching strategy to assist children in thinking about their reading as they read is called Think aloud.  I love the way academia tries to complicate these methods, but there is nothing in this strategy that your great grandma couldn’t have done.  In this strategy the mentor reader reads aloud and shares her thoughts with the child as she reads, to model how an active reader’s thought process functions. Here is a simple example:

“I knew an old lady, who swallowed a fly.” Why would an old lady swallow a fly? Maybe she was talking too much.  Maybe she was cleaning her house.

“I don’t know why she swallowed a fly.  Perhaps she’ll die.”  I wonder who is singing this song, and why is she singing it?  (first person narrative, author’s purpose)  Is she going to die?  (prediction)

“ . . . I knew an old lady who swallowed a cat.”  Somebody couldn’t swallow a whole cat! I don’t think this story is true.  (genre:  fiction / fantasy)

Guided reading is the next step after think aloud.  With this strategy the mentor reader interacts with the beginning reader by stopping and asking questions to check the child’s comprehension. Instead of just modeling what you might think, you will ask questions that require thought.  Beginning questions will provoke thought about:  character – who, setting – when, where, and plot – what.  As the child progresses, why and how questions will flow.  If you pattern your questions in the QVCIPC mode, the appropriate comprehension questions will flow.

Comprehension only occurs when readers think about what they read and embrace the content as their own.  That is my conclusion about reading comprehension.

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!