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 VocabularyToo 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.