Comprehension

I would check out the Comprehension Mini-Lesson on things such as Main Idea & Summarizing by LeAnn NIckelsen with Sarah Glasscock by Scholastic. These are hands-on lessons that have graphic organizers and activities that start concrete and then at the end of the book move to test taking tips on multiple choice. A book like this cost about $11.99 and are available on amazon.com. You didn’t say what age and can this child decode or does he or she trip over words?

The student can read fluently, but gets a blank look when asked something about what she just read. She is in 5th grade.

That almost sounds like a memory / engagement/ visualization issue.

First question: how do you know she can read fluently? When she reads aloud, can she do that with expression? (This wouldn’t be “cold” - she could read the passage to herself or even out loud to warm up.)

Hi Sara,
You might like to have a look at a research article into Working Memory, and something called Digit Span. Particularly, reverse digit span.
What this refers to, is the amount of information that one holds in one’s Working Memory?
Digits can refer to letters or numbers, that you have just seen or heard. For example, how many numbers can you hear and then immediately recall?
For reverse digit span. A telephone number is a good example.
Though with telephone numbers, they tend to held as ‘chunks/blocks’ of numbers. So that 917063427896, is more often rememberd more as;
9170 6342 7896.
Though digits also refer to Letters, where the ‘chunks of letters’ are in turn words.
So that reverse digit span for words, refers to number of words that can held in working memory. Yet the brain also groups words into blocks as well.
So that reverse digit span is what enables us to ‘remember what we just read or heard’.
Though if one has a very limited reverse digit span, then we are not able to recall what we just read? So comprehension is lost.
I have only recently come across this research, though you might like to have a look at it?

http://www.nacdtheproject.com/science/index.html

Geoff. :D

If it is a memory/visualization issue, then the IdeaChain by MindPrime would be the best bet. I’m not sure you’ll get very far with higher level comprehension strategies if there is a basic problem remembering the text.

Janis

Hi,

If your child is reading fluently…they have the decoding piece down…but they don’t read for comprehension…they are reading to decode words not read for meaning which is the whole purpose of reading…

Teaching comprehension is a laborious strategy but I think a parent could do it but it would take a TON of patience. Are you familiar with Lindamood-Bell’s Visualizing Verbalizing program? There are some great strategies in this program to help your child.

However, you want something that is easy to implement. What I would do is to get some blank paper, some colored pencils to use to draw pictures of what she is reading to help her realize that what we read translates into IMAGES in our brain which helps us gain comprehension/meaning. I would have her read a sentence and stop…Have her talk about the sentence with you…What did you just read? You can ask her some WH questions that would pertain to what she read i.e,…Who, what, when, where, why, how, number, location, color, etc. Get her to draw a picture to help her remember what she read in that sentence..then go to the next sentence…adding to the picture she has drawn thus adding more meaning from the text she has read. See where she breaks down..

If she is reading expository text and doesn’t gain the comprehension, chances are she doesn’t understand the vocabulary…you would have to take all the complex vocabulary that she doesn’t know and do a process like I have described to help her understand and also find out what she already knows…try to connect the new vocabulary to her background knowledge.

Also if the child has executive functioning issues, he/she may be decoding words but thinking about something else when he/she is reading in other words going through the motions but not focused on the task.

Like Patti, I see vocabulary as a frequently missing piece—and sometimes visualization. Sometimes it’s just plain old inattentiveness to the meaning. I like Patti’s ideas! How’s it going, Patti?

Hi Susan,

I am a full fledged SLP with my CCC’s…can you believe it? My husband and I were talking about the changes that have happened over the years tonight. I have been working full time for about 3 years in the public schools. With 2 different school districts. The stress is unbelievable. I have about 55-60 kids on my caseload and I am always doing assessments. I am working in the secondary setting…with many troubled kids of different ethnicities. It has been a real eye opener for me… In some instances I don’t agree with tenure of teachers. I have students in high school who can’t read and write. Yes, some of them are assimiliating two languages, but others…it is partly because parents were in denial about their child’s ADD and never treated it…I had one HS teacher say…Whose job is it to teach this kid to read…it should have happened in elementary school… I looked at the teacher and said…”The buck is stopping here…” I am beyond frustrated because I can’t give the kids that need literacy the amount of time they need because I have so many kids on my caseload. I also have my teaching credential and if I went back into the classroom, I would have about 16 kids on my caseload instead of 60 between the two different schools and maybe a snowballs chance in U no where…maybe I could help these kids. Instead I feel like all I do is triage, I basically work as a Jack of all trades. I have speech kids begging me to help them with math….to teach them the skills they need to pass the exit exam in our state in both Language Arts and math…

But my husband was saying…”the stress is just taking it’s toll…and maybe it isn’t worth it…” I am in my late 40’s…I will never have a decent cushy retirement from a district…but man I could open my own business and work a lot less hours and maybe make a dent with kids instead of this frustration I feel of not doing enough…as I can’t do it all….plus with all my legal background in due process I often get pulled into the messy IEP’s and I am the SLP who does the assessments…and IEP’s. But man is it tough to be on this side of the fence with all the timelines…etc..

Some good news!! DD is doing great…She is in 11th grade…has about a 3.0 GPA. She is an athlete, mainstreamed…her reading skills are decent but she still misreads things due to the dyslexia…it is just the way her brain works……vocabulary is still an issue and her writing skills are below average but considering where she was 6 years ago she is a rocket scientist!! I think she is going to make it to college too!!

How are things going for you?

Stress seems to be the operative word in public education. Like you, I am too old to have a cushy retirement and am thinking of vaulting off on my own.

While finishing my teaching certification (seven years ago), I tutored small groups of 6th graders that I pulled in homogeneous groups. I did see about 50 kids a day; however, because I was only doing one thing—reading—and no IEP paperwork, it was nirvana. B/C no certification, they also loved paying me less money. We made HUGE gains in reading.

After getting certified in elementary education gr 1-6, middle school language arts, and sped (cross categorical—hahahahaha—took the test and nearly aced it without ever having a class—what does that say???), I worked one year at an alternative high school without much of a sped population from which to draw. (There’s a great use of my time!) Taught mostly math—there’s a good use of my time. The principal I worked for in the 6th grade building retired, but I still wanted to go back there b/c I figured I could do a similar job there again. Not so b/c the teaching team to whom I was assigned needed someone to help them herd these ED kids and Asperger’s kids through the day. So I’m standing in the back of someone’s classroom managing behavior. I taught reading to 6 kids that year. I taught math to the same 6. I stood around the rest of the day watching someone else teach a content subject. Collaborative teaching is a joke because I didn’t have the background to teach Ss or Sci the way they teach it. (Collaborative teaching requires that the sped teacher be qualified to teach the subject they are co-teaching!) We could have pre-service teachers do those jobs. All the regular ed teachers want is someone to help them manage the diversity of the regular classroom—and it is getting more diverse every day.

Needless to say, that was my last year in that building. A position came up to be a regular education reading teacher (8th grade—do I need my head examined?) and I decided that it would be good for my development (and the pocket book of my therapist). My team of teachers is totally awesome, very dedicated, and they put up with piles of stuff from all quarters. I see about 125 kids a day over 5-55 minute periods each. My kids read from about 4th grade level (as measured by the Gates-MacGinite to post-high school level. It has been interesting to see how “normally” achieving students read and think and write. Last year, I had sped students who read high enough to be in the regular classroom (3-4th grade), but this year another teacher who is more the HS English teacher has them. There’s a great decision…

Both years, I have been in trouble for being that oxen who pulls the wagon train too hard. The other oxen cannot keep up. My principal told me last year that I cannot provide a different education than the other two eighth grade reading teachers and that I have to use the same materials and do the same things as they do. (Why did you hire me then?) Now we have an electronic grade book that tracks our lessons to the state/district objectives and the lessons have to look like everyone elses. While I always teach to the prescribed objectives, I have a pretty different way of going about it. We already have parents lined up to be on our team (interestingly, both the high end and the lowest end both), and the principal is constantly needing to balance the oxen.

Sadly, I understand what she is saying; however, I’m still very frustrated. She is trying to move 800 kids along and try to work with 60 teachers with as little disruption as possible. I find myself constantly trying to knead this huge system into a different shape and that creates waves for principals because the system is too big to change. One certified body is as good as any other to them. They’d like to think differently, but it is that is the reality of it.

So, I’ve decided that I’ve learned what I can from public education. You could work for a hospital—and do reading work. Is there a children’s hospital in your area?

We need to brainstorm this!

Sara Jane,

To help comprehension, you might look into Joann Carlisle’s books called Reasoning and Reading. These are easy for a parent to use. The begining book has four units on word, sentence, and paragraph meaning and reasoning skills. The section on word meaning for example goes through part and wholes, classification, categories, and analogies. The books are available from eps.com.