Comprehension

First graders really take off as readers. Early readers make huge strides in first grade as they gain sight words, phonics and pattern recognition. More advanced readers work on comprehension much of the time. In second grade, groups focus much more on comprehension.

Once children begin reading independently, many parents assume that if children are sitting with the book they are reading it all and understanding it. Often they are only getting the minimum surface meaning of the story by themselves, skipping over hard vocabulary or many words that influence meaning or rushing to finish and missing important subtleties.

Here is the Parent Reading Challenge:

1. Sit down with your children and give them a chapter or short story that either can be read by them or aloud by you for five minutes.

2. At the end of the section, ask your child to tell you the main idea of what they just read and summarize the important parts. Feel free to add some of the questions below. Can they do it?

Second grade children still need to hear you read to them and talk about the book with you to practice inferencing skills, reinforce and model fluency and thinking about the story as they go.

One way that second graders focus on comprehension is by answering THIN and THICK questions. THIN questions require the most basic understanding and repetition. They only touch upon the bottom part of the pyramid of understand in Bloom’s Taxonomy of understanding (see figure at bottom for more info).

THICK questions usually require longer answers, more thought, and ask WHY things happen. There are often no “right” answers. The answers depend on the child’s experiences and help them to connect to the story. Slowing down while reading and thinking about the story carefully will help children understand and retain what they read. Here are some examples for helping your children at home to analyze what they are reading along the way or at the end of the book. You can make up your own thick questions as well. Keep these in mind and maybe pick one to include at the end of your Book Talk when your turns come.

THIN QUESTIONS:

· Name the characters, setting, problem and solution.

· Where did the story take place?

· Retell the story.

· Answer questions with definite simple answers: Who, What, When, Where…

· Any Yes/No answers

THICK QUESTIONS:

Character Analysis:

• What is the most memorable part/character in this story? Why?
• Why do you like/dislike one of the characters? What did they do that make you like/dislike them?
• How are the characters similar or different?
• How would you describe this character? What do they say or do that causes you to describe them that way?
• Why do you think that character did that? What in the book makes you think so?
• How is that character feeling? What makes you think that?
• How do you think that character has changed throughout the book?
• Tell me about the most important character in the book.

Connections:

• Which character is most like you? Why?
• If you were the character, what would you have done similarly or differently? Why?
• Can you make a connection to another book or to your life?
• What would you have done similarly or different if you were __________?
• Did the book remind you of something you have done or experienced? How?
• Have you ever read a non-fiction book that helped you in understanding this fiction story?

Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation:

• Does the Title suit the book? What title would you have given the book
• Were you satisfied with the ending? How else might the story have ended?
• What message is this book trying to send? Why do you think the author wrote it?
• What would you suggest to improve this book? What changes would you make?
• Could this story have really happened? What makes you think that?
• Are there any unanswered questions you have after reading this book?
• What questions would you ask the author of this book?
• How would you summarize this book…

in only 5 words? In 25 words or less? In 50 words?

• Are these the best illustrations for this book? Why or why not?

How do the pictures help tell the story that the words do not?

• What part drew you into the story most quickly? Why?
• When do you think this story takes place? What makes you think that?
• If you were this author, how would you write a sequel to this book? What you want the characters to do?
• What was the high point (climax) of the story?
• How do you think other people would react to this story? (your parents, brother, teacher, grandma, etc.)
• Was this the best setting for the story to take place? Why? Where else could the setting have been?
• Did you have any trouble reading this? What parts were harder to understand?
• What did the author mean by __________________? (Pick interesting phrases, descriptions or expressions)
• Was this book worth reading? Why or Why not?
• What genre book is this? How do you know?
• How did you feel during/when you finished the story?

You can also pick some challenging vocabulary words from the story for your children. Ask them to read the paragraph the word is found in again and make a guess using context on what the word means. You can look it up in a dictionary or on the computer or tell them the real meaning. Use the words in some sentences so they can hear other ways it may be used. See if they can use it in a sentence.