Last week, our buddy brought her own book with her. She is really excited to read the 4th Harry Potter book and loves to read in general. She said it would take her about a week to finish. She read a bit of a chapter from the book. In the chapter, Harry receives a letter from his best friend Ron, via an owl. Harry sends a letter back to Ron and a letter to his godfather, Sirius. As she was reading, she would read a sentence, then reread it to gain meaning. There were a few words she didn’t know. She tried reading the rest of the sentence to get the meaning of the word. We had to help her with some of the words. When we asked her to tell us what happened, there were gaps in her retell. To me, it seemed like she was able to read the words, but didn’t understand what was going on in the story. I felt that this book was not a “just right” book for her. In time, I believe that it would though. I would suggest having her caregiver read this book aloud to her (Routman, 2003).
Next we had her read the Amelia Earhart text. She plowed through the reading, making very few mistakes. But during the retell, she forgot most of what happened. When we let her look back through the text, she was able to get the answers. For example, we asked her how long it took Amelia to cross the Atlantic. Our buddy said it took her 14 months. When she looked back at the text, she self-corrected and said 14 days. Looking back to when she read the text, she read 14 days, but when we asked the question, I wasn’t sure why she said months. That said, she answered most of the implicit questions correctly. This text was at a 4th grade level, but it seems like the stories she reads for fun are above her comprehension level.
For this week, we are going to give her the Early Railroads example. We will have her concentrate on reading slowly and taking her time. If she focuses on this, and when we ask the questions, and she gets them right, then her lack of information in her retell is due to her speed reading. If not, it could be that we should try to have her read “lower” books. I would also like to have her do this with her Harry Potter book to get another look at her comprehension.
Wow a week to finish Harry Potter!! I love how your buddy is attempting to understand the meaning of a word through context, I use that strategy often. I see how your buddy’s attempts at retelling could also tell you that she does not comprehend. I have noticed that as well with my buddy, just because she can retell me about what she just read, that does not always mean that they understand or comprehend what the message means. Your suggestion from Routman, sounds like a great way to problem solve your buddy’s desire to read Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteWhen your buddy stumbled with the time frame it took Amelia to fly, I thought about what we spoke about in class, is it more difficult to comprehend when we are reading aloud? Because the fluency of your buddy appears to be fine, have you thought about testing her comprehension after she has silently read?
Jamie
Jamie--we were able to have her read silently and she did not get any of the questions correctly, and was not able to retell any part of the story. She incorrectly said that Tom Thumb was the creator of the railroad engine.
ReplyDeleteSam--I totally agree with your assessment of our buddy. It was interesting to me that she does not have any goals for her reading except that of trying to finish a book in the least amount of time as possible. Because of this, I agree that she is reading the words, but she is not grasping any meaning behind them. What comprehension strategy would you most like her to focus on? She already seems to employ the technique of rereading, but is there something that she can do the first time so she doesn't have to reread multiple times?
Wow...one week to finish a Harry Potter book! That does give me a bit of concern as to what she can recall of the book after finishing it. I think it is great she would stop and re-read a sentence to gain meaning...definitely a strategy to help her better comprehend the text. I find it interesting that she wasn't able to answer the explicit questions correctly, but was able to answer the implicit questions correctly. Does she have prior knowledge of the Amelia Earhart? It almost seems that she was reading the passage as fast as she could (maybe because she knew you were timing her)and didn't comprehend anything. I am wondering if the only reason she answered the implicit questions correctly is because she has learned about Amelia Earhart prior to your reading conference with her.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned on Gretchen blog that maybe teaching her more strategies to comprehend the meaning of a text might be very beneficial to her overall comprehension. Having her slow down sounds like a great start; teaching her to visualize what she is reading (making a movie in her head) might be a good way to get her to slow down.
:)
What ideas do you have for instruction? Tessie suggests visualization, above. Other ideas? Strategy from Tovani, Routman, or Cooper?
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