Thursday, March 12, 2015

Developing Comprehension of Text and Concepts about Books

            This chapter starts out discussing the parts of a book that children need to understand before they can truly read a book. I never thought about the fact that we had to be shown all the parts of a book. It always seemed like I just knew the different parts of a book because I had been exposed to them from such a young age. Not all people are as fortunate as me however and get to see and read books from a young age so it is important to point out the parts of a book, and how to read them. Often teachers forget that not every student that comes into the classroom will know the basics about a book. It is important to provide that type of information at least for the first half of the year, and not to assume all children will know what those things mean. One concept that really made me think was that they understand books are for reading. I never thought about children needing to understand what you do with books is read them. It is another one of those things that you learn from an early age.
            I really enjoyed their idea of using big books to show the students all the different parts of the book. I remember being read those big books in kindergarten and I always loved when we got to read a big book. You can show those things in the book while at the same time having your students be excited about the big pictures that are in the book. This also allows the students to be able to better see the text, and the pictures, so they can make connections between what the words are saying, and what the pictures are.  
They also suggested using a larger book with text comprehension. When using the shared book experience strategy they suggest you use a larger book so they students can see the words clearly. I really like the idea of having the students reading together. This is often a topic discussed in my English classes, but I feel like it is important for students to participate in reading, but don’t have to feel uncomfortable reading alone. Having the students try and guess what the word is, or what is going to happen next also gets them more involved and excited to read the story.
            The chapter gave a lot of different ideas about teaching comprehension. There were a lot of different ideas to use, and to switch up with so the students don’t get bored. There are a lot of ideas in this chapter that I could use in real life. 

6 comments:

  1. Hello Cierra!
    Sometimes we forget about all the like details it takes in order to teach children how to read. Teaching them all the little aspects like the title, author, table of contents, picture, etc. helps them better understand books in general. It is true though that student’s who have more exposure to books often already are aware of these aspects. I loved looking at the enlarged texts as a child as well and think that they are a great tool to have when working with a whole group or even for students who have visual impairments. Partner reading is always a great idea when you have students who are a little shyer and do not feel comfortable reading to a whole group. This chapter provided us with many quality ideas and strategies for us to use as future teachers teaching reading comprehension.

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  2. Hi Cierra!

    A lot of your post was about children learning the parts of books, how to use a book, and what to actually do with a book. It is so awesome that you had such early exposure to text and had loved ones work with you. I know that never have really thought about how children do not automatically know the parts of a book or what we are supposed to do with it. I like that you mention the big books. I remember reading the big books in first grade and loving it! Also, you talked about students feeling uncomfortable reading out loud; I still am uncomfortable reading out loud to certain groups so this is where I believe choral reading in beneficial to students. There are so many different strategies for students to begin to comprehend text our goal is to find the right strategies that are most effective to our students. Thanks for the post!

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  4. Cierra,

    I thought it was great that you acknowledged the fact that not everyone is familiar with books and their setup. It is crucial that teachers are aware of that, because we are the ones who need to familiarize our children with books. It is something that a lot of us think is natural for students to learn, because many of us as children already knew about books before coming to school. I also really enjoyed how you mentioned the importance of large print books. Sometimes students need to see the letters and words fully to read them properly, so that's a great thing to point out.

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  5. Cierra,

    I had never thought about that either- about having to know all the parts before reading. When I was reading by myself at a young age, I would just open up a book and go. I agree with you about how teachers should not just expect children to know things before they teach them. Teachers need to cover all of the basics first in order to help the child develop a deeper understanding. I enjoyed the big books too- I think everyone did. They were a great way to capture our attention and get us learning about the different parts of a book! I also liked the idea of children reading together too. Did you read more in groups when you were younger or by yourself? I think children need that support while reading so that they know they are not alone throughout the journey of it all. Yes, all of these ideas are strategies we can use in our classrooms and I love that! It is good that we have this book as a reference to use when we begin teaching.

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  6. Cierra,

    When I first read about children knowing the basics of books I was appalled. That is difficult for me to imagine as I've always been surrounded by books as have our children. I never formally taught them how to properly handle a book, that you read from left to right, and the other elements of a book. They learned from us modeling and reading to them. One thing that I thought was important was that the book mentioned that once your child/students are fluent readers, don't stop reading to them. We actually still read out loud as a family until about last year (mom went back to school). I still enjoy being read to :) This chapter has a lot of great ideas that I'm excited about putting into practice.

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