Reading Comprehension

Check out these books:

Improving Comprehension adn Think-Aloud Strategies by Jeffrey . Wilhelpm, PHD

Strategies That Word by Stephanie Harvey, and Anne Goudvis

I Read It But Don’t Get it by Tovani

These books have some great pointers for whole class instruction.

This should do the trick for you. You could do a bit of the V/V full class but it might be better for small group.

Oh, my, I’d find a way to do V/V with the whole class. I can’t imagine anything better for comprehension.

Janis

I did try V/V 2 years ago with the entire class. I had a hard time getting the kids who really needed it to respond and participate in front of the entire class, especially as we got into paragraphs.

If you have any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it. I teach 5th grade.[color=darkred][/color]

Well, Michelle is certainly right that small groups would be better. Any chance you have a day or two where you have a parent volunteer who could occupy the other kids while you work in small groups with the kids who really need V/V? I realize you are limited when you are the only teacher!

Janis

I often wonder if the reason my daughter’s comprehension is so good is b/c she had VV at the beginning of 2nd grade. That’s part of the LMB pkg. isn’t it?

Yes, Leah. V/V is Lindamood Bell.

[i]Strategies That Work [/i]is a great resource and it applies to both elementary and middle school (I’ve even used most of the strategies when I taught high school Reading/Language Arts). The current trend is to also focus on a lot of the before reading strategies, such as previewing, prediction, setting purpose questions, etc.

The trouble with a lot of comprehension problems is that they begin with reading, where I don’t think all reading comprehension problems start. It sounds ironic in a way. I think that’s the genius of the V/V. It starts with the processing problems that cause the comprehension problems.

I have, as I have said, a reading comprehension problem for fiction. I could go thru the main idea, getting the facts, all that til I was blue in the face and I bet I would still have problems. I can see just going thru the
V/V to figure it out that I have actually gotten something out of this.

I imagine it would be quite hard to implement in a room or even smallish group, but I think it might be worth a try to modify it in some way.

—des

I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond to my questions.

Reading comprehension is a complex subject. The best attack is to consider the strategies that good readers use Before, During, and After reading. These are then modeled, taught and practiced throughout the entire school year. It’s a long process, but the JOY is that you use the techniques while you’re teaching something else - so the modeling and the practice activities are integrated into your literature, social studies, etc. Modeling is done through a process called “Think Aloud.” What strategies you emphasize depends on your age group and the types of difficulties they have. The book recommended previously, Strategies that Work by Harvey and Goudis, is excellent.

What state are you in?
Best wishes.

Wht is V/V? :?

Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension by Lindamood Bell. A great program.

www.lblp.com

Janis