Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary
Module 4
What is Reading?
Read the Words
Understand what you
Read
Preparing to ReadWhat do you think this is
about?Title
Picture
Connect to Child’s Life
Reading Comprehension
Understand what you
Read
Recall what you have
Read
Use Strategies• On stories that your child has read• On stories that you read to your child
Reading ComprehensionStrategy # 1
Knowing if you understood or not.• Comprehension Monitoring
What part did you understand?• Usually partial comprehension, not zero
Reading Comprehension
Keeping your child on track.
• What was the sentence about?• What was the page about?• What was the chapter about?• What was the story about?
Reading ComprehensionMain idea vs. Details
Teach your child to identify the main idea.• Tell about what you just read. One main thing.
Teach your child to recall details.• Tell me everything that you remember that
happened in the chapter/ story.
Post-Reading• Link books to real life.• If you are going somewhere, link
to previously read book.• Talk about “book experiences”
and “real-life experiences”.
Understanding the Words
Having a large, rich vocabulary is important for understanding what you read and doing well in school.
Knowing word meanings is strongly related to understanding text.
Understanding the Words
But how does that happen? How do you learn more words?
Can you “cram” for a test on the dictionary?
Vocabulary Knowledge
Do you understand a word?
Do you use the word?
Can you define the word?
The ocean was a beautiful cerulean colour.
How to teach Vocabulary
Too many words to learn to just pick up by guessing meaning.
Ask child if they know the meaning of a new words. Give the meaning of the word.
Child will learn to ask “What does that mean?”
Teaching Vocabulary
Should you teach more words?
Should you teach a deeper understanding of words and
concepts?
Teaching VocabularyNeed to do Both
Should you teach more words?
Should you teach a deeper understanding of words and
concepts?
Teaching Vocabulary
Teach more words and in greater depth.
Teach words that are related to each other, meanings or themes.
Teaching Vocabulary in Themes
More Words• All items in themes
Deeper Meaning• How many types of birds, fish,
flowers, dinosaurs can you learn? • What is a skeleton?
Modeling Vocabulary Learning
Look up a word that you and/or your child do not know.
Make learning about your child’s interests fun.
Teaching Vocabulary in Themes
Brainstorming:• Pick a topic that your child is
interested in.• Think of words that your child might
not know about the topic.• Don’t be afraid of teaching big words.