? for teachers

[T. Lynn]

My daughter uses AR books in school. They are easy reading books and at school they take a test with 5 questions regarding the book. My daughter hasn't been doing so well on comprehending what she reads.

Are their any websites that have a book with lots of short stories followed by questions (and multiple choice answers)? I would love to get something like this for her so I can work with her at home to help improve. I really want her to read the stories and questions herself.

 

[Mrs. T-i-double-g-er]

What grade is she in?

My DD avoided the AR program as much as she could. Then one day we were watching a Sylvan commercial. You know, the one with the boy reading to his friends who said that he used to be afraid to read outloud. DD looked at me and said, "I need that mom." (Ahh the power of advertising). Anyway, she started Sylvan in August at a 1st grade reading level (she was entering 3rd grade). She now is a confident reader and has been moved up to the highest AR range for her class (up to 4.2).

 

[SwedishMeatball]

http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/language_arts/reading_comp/

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/readinglab.htm

 

[golfgal]

A good way to work on comprehension at home is to take a book, write down a question or two for each page (assuming short chapter book like Junie B Jones type book) then as she reads a page, ask the question and have her answer you out loud. Reading a question and just "thinking" she knows the answer isn't going to help all that much. It also helps if you talk about what you are going to read before you read it. Many textbooks are set up this way so if she has one of those you could look at the introduction, find out what the section is about, "in this section you will learn why dolphins are mammals" then when she gets to the part where it says why dolphins are mammals, have her write down the answer.

It is possible she is just skimming the material and not really reading. Having her read out loud helps that too. How old is she?

 

[T. Lynn]

She's in first grade. Thanks for the links. I will check them out.

 

[rt2dz]

Try this link: http://www.learningpage.com/

They have lots of little books you can download with lesson plans. It has helped DS who wasn't doing very well in comprehension. We did one book a week and followed the lesson plan with it. It was just one-on-one tutoring; taught him how to read a book & learn to understand it.

 

[golfgal]

She's in first grade. Thanks for the links. I will check them out.

First grade is easier to deal with, shorter books. I would have her read a page outloud to you then ask her one question about what she read. If she answers it correctly, move on to the next page. Short books are fine for this, Clifford, Curious George, etc. For some of the pages have her look at the picture and tell you what she thinks will happen next based on what is going on in the picture. At the end of the page ask her if what she said was true or not and if not, what really happened.

 

[Buckalew11]

She's probably focused on reading the words and not the idea that she's actually reading.
It may be due to the fact that she's a young reader and still putting reading the words and learning the idea together.
I'd take some of these suggestions and work with her. Stay on top of this because by 3rd grade you are reading to learn and not learning to read so if it is still a problem for her, she'll need to get it fixed before it affects more subjects than just reading.

Good luck from a 41yo who knows all about poor comprehension but did something about it!!