To Understand
Chapter 3 by Ellin Oliver Keene
In your syllabus packet on yellow please read chapter two and reflect on the following key questions:
1. What is your operating definition of comprehension?
2. What strategies/activities do you use in your classroom to help students think more deeply about what they read?
Chapter 3 by Ellin Oliver Keene
In your syllabus packet on yellow please read chapter two and reflect on the following key questions:
1. What is your operating definition of comprehension?
2. What strategies/activities do you use in your classroom to help students think more deeply about what they read?
posted by Christi Slowey at 6:35 PM
2 Comments:
For me comprehension can come at many levels. There is the basic comprehension of making words into conceptual pictures. Then there is the comprehension where the reader is not only able to visualize the words but also see the writers vision for their words. Then there is the highest level of comprehension where the reader recognizes the writers concepts and is able to take those and make new concepts of their own. They are able to critically think about what they have read and make their own conclusions.
I use some strategies to have the students think about what they have read. First of all I try to use good questioning that makes the students think as opposed to spit out an answer. We make predictions about what is going to happen next. We look at the pictures and text and make inferences about the characters and the mood. We compare what we have read to other things to see how they are alike and different. We talk about what we are looking for as we read to give the students more focus. We also talk about the things that you would see and feel if you were there in the writing that maybe the author left out.
I believe comprehension exists when students understand a concept, can explain the concept, can apply it in different contexts and can relate it to other concepts (and sometimes when they can make a decision based on their comprehension).
When we are reading, I identify key ideas before and after we read, and sometimes during the reading. I ask students to identify important information when they are taking notes on the reading. Sometimes, when I give a reading quiz, I will ask them to explain anything else they thought was important as one of the questions. I integrate the same idea when we watch a video by telling students to take notes on the main ideas, and the important themes as opposed to the date and day of the week. I usually tell my students that the bold words are probably important because at least the authors thought they were important.
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