Teaching+Comprehension

The Readers Digest Oxford: Complete Wordfinder, defines comprehension as "the act or capability of understanding, esp. writing or speech." When dealing with early years literacy and in particular the teaching of it, we think of it as a way to gain an insight to the children's understanding of a particlar type of text. "The kinds of discussions and activities associated with each written language genre make distinctive contributions toward developng children's understanding of the nature, purposes and process of reading."  We also use the following strategies or very similar strategies to enable the children to gain the most out of comprehension activities.  The following five strategies are a great way to teach comprehension to early years learners: 1. Before reading
 * Predict:** When looking at the front cover of the book, ask children to predict what is going to happen. Use words like who?, what?, where?, when? and why?
 * Question:** "Encourage children to ask questions about the book (e.g. Three Little Pigs) such as What will happen to the wolf? Will the pigs get eaten? Write down these questions and ask the children to provide answers when the book has been read."

2. During Reading
 * Make Images:** "Encourage children to make images in theiur mind about how the characters feel-for example the wolf, or the three pigs. They can imagine what could happen next."
 * Seek clarification:** "Encourage children to pose questions to clarify what is happening, to investigate a character's intention and so on."

3. After Reading
 * Construct Summaries:** "Ask children t summarise the story, retelling the main ideas. This means not including all the details, only the key ideas in the book."

SOME ACTIVITIES TO TEACH COMPREHENSION: -KWL charts -Text clues -Six hats -Roles -QAPX