Shaunita D. Strozier

Reading to Learn
 
 

Comprehending is Important too!

Rationale:  It is important for children to read for fluency but it is also important for children to read to comprehend.  Comprehending is understanding what you read.  Numerous strategies can use to understand what you read.  One of the strategies is questioning and answering.  This method is used frequently to increase children leaning from text is to have them answer questions based on the text.

Materials:  Pencil, paper, a class set of Tony and the Butterfly by Judith Scott, worksheets will the questions below, chalkboard and chalk, children's library book.
 

Name__________________________
Date______________

Questions over Tony and the Butterfly

1. What was wrong with the butterfly's wing?
2. What did he do with the butterfly after he found it?
3. Whom did Tony's mother call for help?
4. What did Tony do with the water?
5. What happened to the butterfly?

Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by saying that reading fast is important but understanding what is reading is also important.  Understanding what you are reading is called comprehending.  Today, we are going to work on comprehending.
2. "I will give each of you a book to read silently at your desks. Do you remember last week when we talked about the importance of reading silently?  The reason for reading silently is that we do not want every one to here us, we do not want to break their concentration.   The book is called Tony and the Butterfly.  After everyone is finished reading, raise your hand and I will give everyone a worksheet with questions on the book.  After everyone has answered the questions, we will go over the book and check our questions. While reading the book, look for the important thing that we talk about earlier this week in summarizing.  They are Write it on the board: What is (s) he doing, why is he doing it, where is he doing it, with whom is (s) he doing it with?
3. Remind the students to read silently.  Give everyone a book and tell him or her that they will have questions pertaining to the book after they finish reading.
4. As the students are finishing up reading, give each student a worksheet with the questions on it.  Tell them to try their best and that we will go over the answers when every one is finished.  If you finish before everyone else, get out you library books and finish reading it silently at your seat.
5. When all the students are finish, go over the questions with them.
6. Assessment: Have the students finish reading their books, make up questions about their book, and pass the book to a classmate for them to answer.  After their classmate is finish reading, give them the questions.

Reference:  Pressley, Johnson, Symons, McGoldrick, &Kurita (1989), Strategies That

        Improve Children's Memory and Comprehension of Text. University of Chicago

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