Comprehension for Youngsters!

The three things that effect comprehension are "the reader, the text, an the purpose." The two articles that I read were Gill's, "Reading Teacher" and Gregory's "Kindergarteners can do it too! Comprehension strategies for early readers." Through both of these articles it is clear that comprehension is a process. It is so important for a child to be able to relate, ask questions, and formulate opinions about what they are reading. All of these things can be done through familiarity. In Gill's reading, the children would have "I wonders" about the story that would occur before, during, and after the reading. This was a way to connect what the students thought about to their personal, text, and world view. Just like Mrs. Hope used poems to help students understand and make sense of the text, Gill suggested that a good teacher gives sufficient information regarding readings. Giving students meaning of vocab words, context clues, and basically setting them up for success will greatly help their comprehension techniques. Asking students questions before a story that make it seem relative is crucial, especially for young children. I chose to read these two articles because I am very interested in teaching kindergarten. The techniques Mrs. Hope used in the classroom was very comparable to what I am seeing in fourth grade classrooms now. She is requiring that the children be creative, ask questions, draw conclusions off of what they have read and their questioning, and categorize connections that they drew. There were so many different parallel lines that could be drawn from both of these readings. Gill's article is something that should be used for every grade level, and Gregory's article only further solidifying the beneficial techniques that Gill offered in his article.