Three Steps To Perfect Reading Comprehension

You will learn three steps that will ensure your child has perfect understanding of anything being read.

Step One:

First tell the reader that you will be asking him to read something out loud.

Tell the reader to stop reading and let you know if there is anything they do not understand.  You should also let the reader know that you will be stopping him if you think he has gone by something he didn’t understand.  

The parent or coach needs to listen and also see the text and reader while the reading is happening.

When a reader understands what is being read, they will read the text correctly, naturally and smoothly.

When a reader stops understanding what is being read, they will start stumbling over the words, might slow down his reading, or read with effort. Any non-optimum reactions are your clue it's time to stop the reader. 

When you notice a non-optimum reaction, stop the reader and ask, “Was there a word that you did not understand?” A reader who is new to this will probably not look for a word that was not understood the way it is being used. Encourage the reader to look again for any word that they cannot tell you what it means in the sentence read out-loud.

If the reader still cannot tell you, then you will have to spot check for the reader’s understanding of individual words found at or just before you noticed a non-optimum reaction.  Do this by asking, what does the word _____ mean in that sentence?  (Pointing to the word in the reader’s copy of the text being read.) 

Be sure that you know the word’s meaning, before asking your reader.   If there's any uncertainty or the student gives a wrong or incomplete definition, you will have to clear up its meaning by going to Step Two.  If the reader does correctly understand the word the way it is being used, look earlier in the text for other words that may be wrongly understood or totally not understood.  There will always be one, so persist until one is found. It might be a small common word that has many possible definitions.  Words like ‘on’, ‘of’, ‘at’…

Step Two:

Getting the reader to understand the meaning of the word the way it is being used.  You can use an elementary level dictionary book or online dictionaries.  You will want them to give you simple definitions and several example sentences to help your reader understand the word found in Step One. AI will not always give the correct definition so verify it if the definition does not work for the sentence the word was used in. One such dictionary is Claude; it can be installed on your phone or found in your web browser at https://www.ldoceonline.com/

Just ask Claude this:

"In the sentence, (The sentence from the text being read goes here.), what is the definition of the word _____? The definition needs to be worded for a first-grade reading level.  Then give ten totally different example sentences using that specific definition."

Step Three:

After the reader has the general idea of what the word means in the sentence where it was found, you would then have him continue reading starting from the beginning of that sentence where the word was found. If the reader is not alert and ready to continue reading, locate another word that needs to be more fully understood. Please share any successes, and discoveries you have experienced by sharing this on your social media. Should you need additional help, I am willing to help you and your reader.  Just email me at bheifler@gmail.com.

Thank you again for reading.

Bob Heifler

bheifler@gmail.com




 

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