Comprehension Strategies

In Anne E. Gregory and Mary Ann Cahill's piece Kindergartners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers I was shocked to discover that even children in Kindgergarten understood what a schema was, and that ultimately they were engaging in meaning construction. The teacher mentioned in this article implementing these ideas marvelously to her students, making the ideas accessible to her students.

There must be many things as teachers we think our students are not capable of. But I believe if we simply and modify the ideas, transforming phrases and ideas to fit what they already know, the information will be applicable, just as portrayed here with reading this book to Kindergartners. 

How do we do this though? Sharon Ruth Gill discusses strategies to comprehension in her article, The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction. 

One way Gill discusses to assist students in comprehension is first, as a teacher, understanding different factors that affect comprehension. The three biggest factors of comprehension are the reader, the text, and the situation. However, your own personal views affect how you perceive comprehension also. For example, I believe learning is similar to a learning theory known as social cognitivism. This view that states the learners environment, behavior, and cognition all influence how they learn. My understanding, as brought up by Gill will be different because of this view I have on learning. So, personally, I believe that relating information back to the student, and making it relevant to them--whether that be to their current place in life, their behavior, or past experience--is a great way to further practice comprehension. 

Overall, as a teacher, it is important to not only form your own ideas about comprehension, but to continually seek new council and opinions on how best to achieve comprehension. One idea I found on Pinterest that I loved and thought was very creative was having students make a retelling bracelet (left). Each color has a specific purpose: the green bead is the beginning of the story, the blue beads are the story components in the middle, and the red bead is the end of the story. To help kids recall the story, have them slide a bead from right to left as they retell what they heard. Another idea is having a story board that is filled out as a class during reading or after reading of the story (upper right corner) to establish comprehension on the topic.