Comprehension and Think Alouds

I thoroughly enjoyed the reading Kindergartners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers, and I would love to implement some of the strategies Mrs. Hope uses in her classroom because these strategies seem to be extremely effective. Mrs. Hope said that "when we get a new piece of information, it's easier to remember it if we can stick it onto something that's already in our heads; making this connection helps us to understand what we are reading" (Gregory & Cahill, 2010, p. 516). I find that I use this strategy when I encounter new information, and I think would be very beneficial for students to think about learning new information in this way. This would allow the students to associate this new information with something they are familiar with, which will help them to understand the new concept. Another strategy mentioned in this article is visualization, which involves creating mental pictures while listening to a story. Whenever I read books or listen to stories, I always find myself doing this. Encouraging students to do this and to share their visualizations with their classmates will help all of the students to use their imagination and to even think critically about the story. I think these strategies would be really easy to incorporate into a classroom and also help the students with their comprehension abilities at the same time.

Like many of the other concepts we have discussed in class, there are many definitions for the term 'comprehension.' Even though this definition is quite complex, I found it the easiest to understand stating that "comprehension is a process in which readers construct meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance the reader takes in relationship to the text" (Pardo, 2004, p. 272). The article What every teacher needs to know about comprehension, points out a very important fact that if a child has more background knowledge relating to the text, that this child will be more likely to comprehend what is in the text. This aspect is important to consider in the classroom; since students come from all different backgrounds, all of their background knowledge will be relatively different. Pardo suggests many strategies for teachers to help support readers, and the strategies listed under teaching vocabulary words I found most useful. It is essential to teach students the words that students will encounter during their reading, instead of picking out the challenging words in textbooks that do not even relate to what they are reading. I know that when I was in school, we had spelling tests every week. We would learn about the words throughout the week and then have a test at the end of the week; these tests probably would have been a lot more beneficial if they were related to something that we were discussing or reading in that class. In my own classroom, I would definitely like to implement this strategy because I think it would be incredibly helpful to the students.

The reading The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction provided the reader with three major factors that should be considered that affect comprehension. These factors include: the reader, the test, and the situation. It is important to keep these factors in mind because they might be the reason that a student is struggling with comprehension. I really like how Gill pointed out that "Teachers might also understand that comprehension is not something that either does or does not happen after one reads" (Gill, 2008, p. 109). I'm glad that this was included in our reading because if I would not have read this, I might think that comprehension is supposed to just happen. Gill provided us with examples of prereading, during-reading, and postreading activities that will help students with their comprehension throughout the story. Some prereading activities include asking questions, displaying objects related to the story, and leading discussions. During reading students can make predictions about the story, and after reading, students can create a timeline, a map, a television newscast, a newspaper report, a letter, a diary, or even a poem. All of these strategies would be incredibly helpful with reading comprehension, and I think doing these activities throughout the reading will help the students grasp a deeper understanding of the story.

Before doing these readings, I had never really heard of think-alouds; however, I like the way our textbook defines think-alouds as "a way of modeling or "making public" the thinking that goes on inside your head as you read" (Cunningham & Allington, 2010, p. 126). The textbook provides many examples of how teachers can start off by helping the students to make connections to other things that they are familiar with. These statements will help the students think critically about the material that they are being introduced to as well as finding a way for them to relate it to something that they know. Even though this task is very simple, I think it would be incredibly helpful for students to understand what they are hearing.