The National Reading Panel identified reading comprehension as one of the fundamental skills necessary to master the art of reading. Comprehension is best strengthened after an initial reading program has laid groundwork of phoneme awareness, letter recognition and basic vocabulary skills. At this point, the emergent reader should be challenged to take the sounds and letters to the next stage of development which is comprehension of complete and abstract thoughts.
Since comprehension is a complex cognitive process, it's best to first give the student the necessary tools by which the role of vocabulary can be fully understood and appreciated. While studies have definitely shown that vocabulary instruction develops reading skills, it has also been linked to significant gains in comprehension. Using age-appropriate activities that are designed for the student's current level of ability has been proven to be effective methods of increasing comprehension. The use of computers in classrooms and homes was very successful in developing this core skill. Other ways of introducing and learning vocabulary include reading or listening to stories, learning a word list prior to reading a text.
Comprehension is an active process between the student and the written word. To encourage this intentional thinking, readers should be encouraged to actively communicate what they have just read. In an educational research study, it was shown that students who relate the ideas in print to their own personal knowledge and experiences are better able to formulate vivid mental representations of the text.
Reading exercises like this allow for the development of comprehension skills through the use of key cognitive strategies. The child is challenged to formulate the meaning behind the text and to apply that reasoning to their own life experience. Research has shown that this deliberate application of words to their meanings drastically improves the student's comprehension, allowing them to discern clear and concise images of the text.
Educators and parents can enhance the comprehension of the child through various effective methods. For example, read (or have the student read) a word and its definition and ask the student to use the word in a sentence. Another method involves reading with or to students. Through the use of questions, readers can provide instant feedback of the text to the teacher. A variation of this method asks the student to create their own questions about the story, thereby encouraging them to look beyond the words to the meaning of the sentences. Analyzing the story or using a summary technique also aids the student to integrate the ideas in the text and to generalize the information.
Research has shown that a combination of comprehension-building techniques work best because it challenges the students on different levels and in various ways. A diverse application to teaching comprehension actually causes the student to think on several levels and stimulates the student's critical thinking ability. Once this key cognitive skill is developed, students will be able to access this device throughout their entire educational career, causing them to successfully comprehend texts of all types.
Reading comprehension is the key to success. It unlocks doors in academic learning and will enhance lifelong learning. Children are able to develop this skill after grasping the foundational rules of language and vocabulary. The ability to read and comprehend texts increases the student's skills in all aspects of language, including spelling and fluency. The use of reading comprehension strategies is directly linked to the student's academic achievement and continuous growth in language development. Er-u-di-tion, a game that jump-starts the road to reading, is an effective method to enhance comprehension, among other reading skills. The game's cards include over 300 high frequency words and their definitions. Players earn bonus rolls by identifying the word, reading its definition and using the word in a sentence.
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