Reading+Comprehension


 * Reading Comprehension **

It is the act of extracting and constructing meaning from the text at the same time.

Decoding and Comprehension:
Early in literacy development children put most of their effort into decoding words, therefore comprehension is lost. The more skilled a child is at decoding the less conscious effort is required for it which means that there is more effort left over for comprehension.

Encouraging comprehension:

 * Build active involvement: teacher should tell the children that they themselves are in charge of what their brains takes in, so they cannot sit back and do nothing.
 * Holding attention: write or draw notes about what they are reading.
 * Being persistent: if text is difficult to comprehend put children in groups so they can talk about what they found difficult to each other.
 * Taking time to reflect: once finished reading, get the child to write down or draw information about the story.
 * Being flexible: encouraging the idea that no answer is incorrect, every one has different opinions.

Strategies for teaching comprehension:
__Before reading:__ __During reading:__ __After reading:__
 * Predict; ask children to look at the cover and guess what they think the story might be about or what they think will happen.
 * Question: encourage children to ask questions, record them so that after reading they can see if their questions were answered.
 * Make images: ask children to imagine how the characters might feel
 * Seek clarification: encourage children to ask questions if they are not sure what is happening in the book
 * Construct summaries: retell the story, reflect back and see if their predictions were right, see if all their questions were answered.

Reciprocal Reading:
Children are given demonstrations of how predicting, questioning, summarising and clarifying which can be used to understand texts. Predictor: helps the group predict and then reads the text. Clarifier: clarifies concepts. Questioner: asks each person a question. Summariser: summarises the book.

What ideas of information will the book cover? || Were the ideas clear? Was there any word that people didn't understand? || Does this remind you of anything? || The main ideas were... The gist of the story so far is... ||
 * **Predictor** || **Clarifier** ||
 * What do you think...
 * **Questioner** || **Summariser** ||
 * Why did this event happen?