Our theoretical discussion group discussed the 3 articles
written by Laura S. Prado, Paul Neufeld and Katherine A Dougherty Stahl. We all agreed that one main point from the
articles, which definitely aligns with our thinking, is that limited background
knowledge is a major problem in reading comprehension.
We agreed that comprehension is a difficult skill for
teachers to teach as well as for students to learn. We think that Laura Pardo’s article was right
on the mark. We discussed some important
areas to work with and focus on to help students stay on track with their
comprehension skills, such as giving background knowledge so that the student
can better make sense of what they are reading.
Some things that teachers can do to help are as follows:
Teach decoding skills, build fluency, help build and
activate background knowledge, teach vocabulary words, motivate students and
engage them in personal response to texts.
Text structure is important.
Teachers should be sure to teach and model strategies and give students
independent reading time to develop these strategies.
Stahl states that, “ children who actively
engage in particular cognitive strategies are likely to understand and recall
more of what they read.” (Stahl, page 598) The key to children
acquiring these strategies is the instructional techniques that the teacher
uses. Several of these strategies, which we discussed within our group
and how they would be useful, in our classrooms, are as follows:
· Use of story grammars/story maps/literature
webbing (useful with folk tales or other narrative text structures)
· 5 finger retell
· Question answering and question-answering
instruction is important to prompt thinking at all levels.
· Reciprocal teaching helps gain more meaning
from text and helps with student self-monitoring
· Literature webbing is proven effective with
first graders using predictable, narrative texts
· Text talk
· Use of video to help with limited background
knowledge
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