Articles for Teachers
For a literacy lesson to be effective, it must embrace the idea of engaging the learner before, during, and after reading. Unfortunately, teachers and parents often give little thought to comprehension until after a selection has been read. Then they will assign questions for the child to answer or ask them to write a book report. By leaving out strategies that target reader comprehension before and during the act of reading, the reader is done a disservice and complete understanding is unlikely.
This article will discuss two very simple before reading techniques that can be used by any parent, teacher, or educator to help develop improved comprehension skills for readers of all ages, levels, and abilities.
BEFORE READING
One of the most important and effective tactics that can be used to improve reading motivation is to allow student choice in reading selections. It should be no surprise that youngsters are more likely to read and will read for a longer time when the subject matter is interesting to them in some way. Allowing student choice gives children ownership of the situation and gives them a stake in their learning.
Of course, providing students with a limitless reading selection might backfire if there are not any ground rules involved. You might have some young sports fans in third grade and a Tiger Woods biography might be just the right choice, but you certainly don't want them picking up a gossip magazine and reading about his extramarital affairs. Adults are best off offering a limited choice or guided choice method to selecting texts. Offer your child or class five or eight different books or stories and ask them to choose what they would be most interested to read. Or, have the children select a genre they would like to explore and then the adult could choose the specific book. This simple technique can go a long way toward academic success.
A second easy method of improving comprehension through literacy lessons is to activate prior knowledge students may have about the book's subject matter. The more that children can relate to a book and be able to tie the book in to their experiences and memories, the better they will be able to understand and comprehend.
For example, imagine a class is going to start a novel unit reading "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen. The book follows a boy who crash lands in the wilderness and the struggles he faces as he tries to survive on his own in the wild. While it is true that very few kids can say they have direct knowledge of this type of situation, they certainly have some prior experience with elements of this scenario.
Through written expression or class discussion students can be asked to detail camping excursions, hiking trips, or walks in the woods. The teacher can ask them to think of a time they may have been separated from their parents in the mall or the supermarket and ask them to explain how that felt. The teacher could ask students to brainstorm a list of three items they would want with them if they were isolated in the wilderness. All of these discussion starters serve to engage students in the story and activate their prior knowledge and experience. This method allows to students to use their prior knowledge as a solid base on which the new understandings gained from reading can be formed.
Developing literacy lessons that incorporate guided choice and activation of prior knowledge can have marked impact of reader motivation, interest, and comprehension. The best thing about these two strategies is that they will take up very little time and do not require much preparation in advance. Simply put, the use of these two simple before reading strategies improves the entire reading experience.
Shawn is a middle school teacher who has worked in all academic disciplines and special education. He holds master's degrees in reading education and special education. Shawn currently teaches in Japan. You can read about more ideas for literacy lessons here: