Developing comprehension, part II

This is the part of teaching comprehension that gets technical.  Unfortunately I am not a professional educator.  However, as a parent of a precocious reader and a homeschooler I'm obliged to learn something and so I'll pass on what I learn to you.

Comprehension in small children going from basic picture books to beginning chapter books definitely depends on the breadth of their life experiences.  This is where part I of this article comes in.

However, comprehension in a child who is going from beginning chapter books to novels to complex beasts like The Chronicles of Narnia and the like, or to other types of text like recipes,  labels, instructions, is quite different.  Here I think there are some basic things any parent can do to facilitate the comprehension of text.

1)  Point out things like chapter titles or headings.  Discuss what they are for and what they are saying with relation to the text.
2)  Stop periodically to ask the child to summarize what they have read orally.  You might have to prompt them with questions like:  what happened first? next? last?  what was the basic problem?  how was it solved?
3)  Point out the basic organization of the text if it is anything different from paragraphs.  For example, if you want to know about how long something is going to cook, usually there is a special heading at the beginning of a recipe called "cooking time".

That being said, there's something to be said for letting your child learn at their own pace.  I mean, if they're a precocious reader, they're already ahead of the game, so its not like they'll be behind if you don't push them.  If they read a book from end to beginning and enjoy it, well, isn't that the point?  They can read it again later the "right" way and enjoy it again all new.   The only caveat is that you should make sure your child doesn't learn to coast for so long that they don't actually pick up the comprehension skills when it is appropriate to do so.

Developing comprehension, part I

Being a good reader is much more than "cracking the code".  On the one hand there are children who can decode words in an advanced way, but who cannot make sense of the meaning of those words.  This is referred to as hyperlexia, and is distinct from precocious reading.  A precocious reader has advanced decoding skills as well as commensurate comprehension skills.

Developing good comprehension skills in small children requires exposure to a variety of experiences--not just books.  So, field trips are great thing for developing a strong reader--museums, nature walks, cultural events,  the county fair, the zoo, even trips to the mechanic or the grocery store can be opportunities for developing vocabulary and comprehension.  Also, reading a variety of material (not just books) can be helpful--recipes, the sports page (stats), charts and graphs, assembly instructions, instruction manuals, nutrition labels (yes, the cereal box is ok!).  

This is also where the nonfiction section of the library comes in handy.  We noticed that our DD can really dig into a novel set in the Middle Ages since we spent a while learning about castles when we acquired a toy castle, and about the Renaissance when we read the Mixed up Files of Basil E Frankwiler, whereas something set in the Islamic world is much harder for her to grasp.  So, if a book or toy starts to need history or science that your child has not yet encountered, instead of treating it as a hindrance, treat it as a great opportunity to raid the library's nonfiction section.

Mrs. Noodlekugel

Author: Daniel Pinkwater
Lexile measure:  not known, probably around 400
Language:  No swear words, no potty language.
Violence: none
Big Kid Mature Topics:  The kids in this story disobey their parents openly in favor of the maintenance man and get away with it.
Illustrations: black and white shaded drawings nearly every page
Plot: mildly complex.

I had high hopes for this one since I read the review in Parents Magazine.  One of the really big events of my childhood was when I received a letter from the Pinkwaters after asking them a question about "Superpuppy".  DD thought it was good enough to read to DS (now 2 1/2 and asking for chapter books), but I mostly see her curled up with Wizard of Oz.  Personally, I was disappointed.  The book is a romp, sort of like Pippi Longstocking.  The children disobey their parents and then have a really great time with an older lady, a talking cat and some interesting mice.  Their cookies come alive and dance around.  But there isn't really any point to the plot.  It doesn't really go anywhere, it just presents a fun escapade.  The variety of vocabulary used is limited.  I found myself resisting the urge to count the number of times the word "said" was used.  The dialogue is rather flat.  For a book this length, there should be more.  However, if your kids like this book, you can tell them that the Pinkwaters answer their fan mail.  If they don't, maybe you can make it up to them by fixing a noodlekugel.

Starry River of the Sky

Author: Grace Lin
Lexile measure: 810
Language:  No swear words, no potty language.
Violence:  the main character has a fit of anger in which he injures himself (accidentally) and also damages property (accidentally and intentionally)
Big Kid Mature Topics:  poverty,  running away from home because of not feeling loved by parent/verbally abusive parent, takes place in China so there is some cross cultural stuff, gods/goddesses (not actually named as such, but the characters are presented as mythic and having godlike qualities and are actually worshipped as gods/goddesses in China), "noxious" animals, references to being "cursed" (no curse words or curses actually pronounced), kidnapping, deception
Illustrations: monocolor  papercut like drawings at the beginning of each chapter and sparse full color illustrations
Plot: very complex, kind of like Chronicles of Narnia, not like War and Peace, with interweaving plots.  Also, you will appreciate it much more if you read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon first.

This book is a little more dark than its predecessor.  I chose not to let DD read it by herself, but we read it together so that I could explain the many scary elements.  Please remember that for young children, the loss of a parent or being separated from parents is one of the most scary things they can encounter!  Like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, it is a high interest story and well written.  It can be appreciated on a few levels.  I don't think you can expect a young child to really follow the interweaving plots, but the different stories found in almost every chapter are also great on their own as a series of folktales (or folktale like stories).  I had to explain a lot to my daughter, so I'm thinking that the combination of the complexity and the dark elements might make this book not the greatest for independent reading, but it was fine for parent guided read aloud time.  This would be worth revisiting in 4th grade or above as an independent reader.

Reading by Nightlight

When she was about 3 1/2, DD started to turn on the light in her bedroom so she could read past her bedtime.  This went on for a couple of nights (I think!) until I started "checking in" on her to "make sure she was alright" about 5 minutes after I put her down for the night (when they're 3, they don't always realize that you can see the light under the door, nor the impulse control to wait until you are far gone from the bedroom area!)

I recently discovered DD trying to read by nightlight (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, if you must know).  (I wonder if that's why she suddenly started complaining that one nightlight wasn't bright enough?)  So now we've decided to remove all interesting books from the bedroom at bedtime so she can get some sleep.   The nightlight stays to ward off the dinosaur shadows. (Yes, I realize the shadows are created by the nightlight.  Terrified 4 year olds don't always listen to reason.)

Any other ideas?  Share a comment!

Question of the Week

I realize that this is probably more like question of the month.  Sometimes it just takes awhile to find a good question.   

What do you think happens next?

This is a good one to check general comprehension, and also to point out plot devices used to build suspense.  Obviously, it can only be used if you control the reading material, and not if your child has already devoured the book.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Author: Grace Lin
Lexile measure: 810
Language:  No swear words, no potty language.
Violence: one character threatens to destroy a village but it gets saved before anything happens, a girl talks about how she has a scar because she was stabbed as a child (no gory description).
Big Kid Mature Topics:  poverty, "fortune", running away from home, takes place in China so there is some cross cultural stuff, but nothing scary, gods/goddesses.
Illustrations: monocolor  papercut like drawings at the beginning of each chapter and sparse full color illustrations
Plot: very complex, kind of like Chronicles of Narnia, not like War and Peace, with interweaving plots.

There is a good reason this book got the Newberry Honor.  Wow.  Like eating dim sum in Chinatown (if you are a foodie), it was so yummy!  Neither my daughter, nor I could put this down. Amazingly, its an adventure without being very scary or at all violent.  The theme is thankfulness.  We're so psyched that there is another companion novel available at our library!  Grace Lin has also written the "Year of the ..." series, which I thought was equally well done, but has some stuff about crushes and school that I thought would be better for older kids.  This one would be fine for a 4 year old and up, maybe sooner, because its more of a fantasy.