Module 3

Orlando is a active happy child who has struggled with comprehension while reading independently, causing his teacher to be concerned. A reading specialist was brought in to do a consultation and some strategies were discussed to help Orlando succeed. To be clear, comprehension is the understanding of what has been read and predicting, summarizing, retelling and finally rereading are tried and true comprehension strategies. To help Orlando with his ability to predict, the teacher would find it useful to read favorite stories several times, after the first two or three times reading children are better able to make true predictions since they already know what will happen next(Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. 2011 pg. 141). The goal of summarizing at the early level is for students to identify the main idea of the story (Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. 2011 pg 138). After reading a book it may be useful to have Orlando look at the pictures in order to recall the important details of the story. Retelling is where he can be creative and recreate the story after it is told, using puppets to create a puppet show or even having a dramatic retelling where he can reenact the dialogue with the teacher as the narrator. Rereading is most frequently the “look back” strategy, to search for answers to questions about the story(Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. 2011, pg 122). Reading for fluency is also another rereading strategy; to reread a sentence or paragraph if they had difficulty with a few words, it brings about fluency which is imperative to comprehension(IRIS Center, pg 13). When reading the teacher could give Orlando the opportunity to try out the language in the text, asking him to repeat a sentence or phrase that frequently occurs in the book.

Graphic Organizers are simple diagrams used to assist students in organizing and recalling elements from stories they have listened to or read. They can use simple maps to identify the who, what, where , when and why of a story or sequence the events of a story. Orlando enjoys drawing and this technique has been proven to improve comprehension as well. This is a tool that he can eventually use on his own and to create a mental picture of the story. Markers can be visually seen with the beginning, middle, and end. The story elements can be identified and Orlando will be able to retell the story(IRIS Center, pg 15).

Repeated reading has been shown to assist students with reading comprehension. Partner reading is a form of peer tutoring that should be on the reading level of the less fluent reader. The higher level reader reads a passage first to act as the model, the less fluent reader then reads the passage with help from the partner as needed. Group repeated reading begins with the teacher reading the passage while students follow along in their books. Next, students echo each sentence or paragraph that the teacher reads. Finally the teacher and the students read the passage together. Once the full passage is read as a group, the students can continue to practice the passage during partner reading or independent practice. The group reading strategy would prove to be the best for Orlando since it incorporates his teacher that he is found of and is reinforced in a partner activity that he will enjoy(IRIS Center, pg 29). Reader's theater can implement repeated reading so Orlando may be able to perform for the rest of the class. Furthermore, for many books you can sing the songs together or add body, hand or finger movements (pg 122) all things which would stimulate Orlando, improving his comprehension.

All of these strategies have been effective in improving comprehension, it is just a matter of the individual child's personal preference to see what would work best for him or her! In Orlando's case I firmly believe knowing what I know as an educator that the reader's theater would be enormously beneficial for him since it is fun! It is difficult to struggle and focus at any age and can be very discouraging for a child to be forced into techniques that can be tedious so making learning fun is crucial for the children and the teachers!

References

A. (2012, April 27). The Three Little Pigs. Retrieved June 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxkx9FHpuzk&t=2s

Welcome to the IRIS Center. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2017, from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/

Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2011). Literacy beginnings: a prekindergarten handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.