7 Keys to Comprehension

In this day and age of moving pictures, we tend to let the books rest and go for something easier. I'm glad though, that both my husband and I like reading and we are able to model this to our kids (admittedly, we sometimes give them more than their fair share of television and computer time!).

Visuals on the screen certainly cannot be exchanged for the images we can see in our minds! I realized this after attending Susan Zimmerman's 7 Keys to Comprehension talk last 14 Jan 2010.

Susan was certainly a very engaging speaker, and she told wonderful stories! We went through the different keys to comprehension in the morning and practiced, practiced, practiced in the afternoon.

The audience was made up mostly of teachers, and a spattering of parents (like me!). While I have to admit that it seemed like she had her talk directed to teachers, it was still worthwhile attending because parents are, naturally, teachers to their children at home.

Some very important things I picked up from the talk were --

• belief in the ability of the child (positive thinking at work here, guys) -- take away initial impressions and believe that the child CAN!
• practice, practice, practice (reading and writing)
• allow for failure in a safe environment
• allow the children CHOICE, to they remember the joys attached to reading
• during discussion, assure the child that there is no right or wrong answers, as long as they can support their interpretation of the story (get them to THINK and support their thinking)
• and in order to support this thinking, teachers should also ask "good" questions (e.g., why do you think the custodian felt like that after meeting with the daughter of 14-A?) as opposed to "bad" questions (e.g., what does the custodian do in the room of 14-A?)

So, what are the 7 Keys? (Remember, adults are considered proficient readers -- and go through these 7 keys without thinking about it anymore. However, when teaching little ones, it would help if we break down the reading process with them so comprehension of a piece/story would be easier for them to understand.)

• background knowledge (make connections to relevant prior knowledge)
• creating mental images (visual images allows readers to become emotionally involved)
• questioning (why, what where, who and how)
• drawing inferences (based on the clues in the story)
• determining importance (essentials vs non essential information)
• synthesizing (tracking in order to get overall meaning of piece)
• using "fix up" strategies (if there are words that a reader doesn't understand, they "fix up" by research)

Try these tips with your kids, especially the younger ones and see how they can help comprehension!!

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