stellamaris
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Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Feb 11 2011 at 3:02pm | IP Logged
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I have had to work very hard with my ds (now 9) to develop his comprehension skills, or, at least, his ability to explain to ME what he comprehends. I needed to assess several different problem areas:
1. Could he read well enough to understand the material in the first place?
I evaluated this by having him read aloud over a period of several days. This was tough because he didn't want to read aloud and we had a struggle over that, but it turned out he was a very good reader.
2. Could he understand what he was reading?
I tried to get at this by asking specific questions about a fact of the story immediately after he had read it aloud to me. I also asked questions that required him to predict or to identify consequences/results of specific actions of the characters in the story. His understanding of cause and effect was weak; we continue to work on this.
3. Could he remember long enough to narrate back what he was reading?
This is a different problem than comprehension. I tried to assess this by asking specific questions about the story at the end of his reading.
4. Could he organize the material mentally in a way that made it possible for him to recall it in an orderly sequence?
For this, I asked him to narrate the story-what had happened? I listened carefully and noted whether the narration was in order, or just a collection of random facts told out of order. At first, he only would respond, "I can't!", but upon some prodding he could tell me a few isolated facts.
For my son, the biggest problem lay in organizing the material so he could both understand the flow of the story and then tell it back. This was compounded by an expressive language difficulty. So, to address that we did a bunch of things:
1. Picture narration: This worked on his expressive language issues and also on learning to recognize and relate information. We would study a picture and than I would have him tell me as much as he could about it. It was slow going at first, but he improved with practice.
2. Short story sequencing: We read very short stories, like Aesop's Fables. We discussed together what happened at the beginning of the story, and then I drew a picture of that (he has fine motor delays). We repeated this for the middle and the end of the story. Then I asked him to use the pictures as clues to retell the story.
We used story sequence cards as well. These are free online; you can also find them for purchase in teacher's stores.
I tried to work with him orally on identifying cause and effect in stories.
3. Longer story sequencing: We read longer stories, at the rate of about 4 pages per day. (Most of them were 8-12 pages). We used a form I just made up on the computer, which you can download, to first identify main characters and then identify the beginning, middle, and end of the section of the story we had read. (It's only blue because I didn't know what I was doing  !) When we finished the entire story, we did a chart for the whole story altogether. I filled this out...the point is to discuss the story, not the practice writing skills.
I also tried to get him to mentally visualize the setting and characters of the story. I told him to create a "movie" of the story in his mind. I encouraged him to describe to me in detail what his "movie" looked like. Being able to mentally picture stories is crucial to interest and comprehension. So, for example, with the three little pigs, I would help him get a good mental picture by asking questions like, "What color is your pig? What is he wearing? Can you hear him hammering the sticks to make his house? What color is his house? Is it taller than the pig? Does it have a door?...." You get the picture...literally! Then I would ask him to "replay" his movie and tell me the story "as it happened" (which was, of course, as he was remembering it). Sometimes he would get off onto all kinds of details, but the idea is to get them creating the image and then having practice accessing that image to retell the story. This is developing neural connections across the two hemispheres of the brain. Your dd may not need to approach, but I mention it here for completeness.
4. Read-alouds: Reading good literature aloud, and explaining and discussing it, are tremendous ways to increase both vocabulary and comprehension. I continued with this practice (and still do!) as we continue to also working more directly on comprehension.
The levels of Bloom's taxonomy, from easiest comprehension skills to hardest, were helpful for me. They are: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,synthesis, and evaluation. Here is a chart that lists each level along with ideas for questions--just use the words listed for each level. For example, under "knowledge", which is the most basic get-the-facts level, you could tell/ask your dd:
List the three animals in the story.
Tell me what they each built their houses out of. (identify)
What does the story mean when it says the first little pig was "lazy"? (define)
Show me how the wolf knocked down the house of straw (show).
Tell me what you remember about the wolf trying to knock down the brick house. (recall)
Here is another online pdf file that has good questions, too.
Knowing these levels has helped me move him from easier to harder levels of comprehension slowly but steadily.
He still needs my assistant in narrating a story, but he has shown marked improvement.
HTH!
__________________
In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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Topic: Increasing Comprehension
