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"Comprehension Skills and the Key Word Outline"
by Donna Reish
Fall 2004
In trying to help a friend of mine help her son with his Key Word Outline (KWO) and comprehension, I came up with the following suggestions for her, and I thought others might benefit from some of the ideas presented here too.
Keep in mind when reading this that her son can write (physical act of writing) well (and even neat, when he tries!), can spell at grade level or above grade level, can word call (decode words as in reading) above grade level, and doesn't have problems with other areas outside of comprehension.
That is why I suggested that she write for him so much (he doesn't need the writing practice, and if he is forced to do all the verbal comprehension work and write a bunch after each interchange, I thought she would lose him). In other words, I would do more writing for him in exchange for the
time that they will spend working on comprehension. She knows he can pen down the words for the KWO himself, but he needs help with comprehension.
I would focus at home on his comprehension in the following way:
1. When he is ready to do his KWO, sit down with him and do the following:
a. Have him read the passage to you.
b. Then take one sentence at a time and ask him if he knows what each of the questionable words means.
c. If he doesn't know what a word means, tell him what it means (unless it's a vocabulary word)--pointing out any roots, suffixes, etc. that might help him understand it (i.e. "Uncompassionate"--do you remember what compassionate" means? If I say "untie" the dog, what am I say--the opposite of tie, right? etc. etc.).
d. After you do that for any sentence, see if he can tell you the meaning of the sentence.
e. If he still can't, ask him what the sentence is about (i.e. Uncompassionate people, for example: people who do not show compassion or care)
f. Then ask him what those uncompassionate people do or what the sentence says about them. (i.e. They only think of themselves.)
g. Do this for each sentence.
h. Then ask him as a whole what he thinks the whole paragraph is about.
i. Write that on the topic line for him. (Since this will be such a laborious process, and you already know he can write on the lines himself, I would write the words he tells you on the lines for him.)
j. Now go back to the first sentence and read it to him and remind him what he told you it meant.
k. Ask him which key words in that sentence would help him remember what the sentence is about when it's time for him to rewrite it.
l. Highlight those words. (If he gets stuck on this, remind him that he told you earlier that the whole sentence was about uncompassionate people, so he should highlight that since his new sentence will also be about uncompassionate people)
m. Do this for all of the sentences and all of the paragraphs.
Remember, it will be that interchange of information--him telling you what he thinks something means, you giving him any info he doesn't know, etc. that will build his comprehension. Unfortunately, comprehension worksheets, etc. rarely work. Discussion, root word studies, the way the sentence flows, his input, your input, etc. are the things that build comprehension.
Don't worry about writing the words for him in his KWO. Your focus is on building comprehension skills--not the physical act of writing. You will write what he finally understands. That will make him less likely to hate this whole process. (If he has to discuss it all with you, THEN write it all out, it would get so long.) Plus, kids usually like just "talking" to their parents about things.
2. In all interactions, use anything he already knows to help build comprehension. If you are reading a book and the word "uncharactistically" comes up, ask him what character means. (Or if you always say, "Don't be characterized by selfishness" like I do, you can say, "What do I mean when I say 'Don't be characterized by selfishness' all the time?" When he say, "known for it," you can say so "characteristically" means known for it too. Do you remember that "un" means the opposite...so "uncharacteristically" means "not characterized" or not known by it.)
I know that sounds laborious. And obviously, you don't have to do it all the time. But I would put an emphasis on it in general this year to help him build his comprehension. It's so easy to assume that the kids know what we are talking about or referring to all the time.
3. I would go back to reading daily with him---just the two of you. I would start off with a reader at his level (truly at his level; not "History Stories for Boys" (though I like that to read aloud to kids) that is listed in the 6th grade section but has old English-type writing in it). I would use a modern type reader like Abeka or BJU--or even something easier than his level like Creation Corner coloring book, etc. Just read a paragraph to him with him following your finger across the page (have him follow along; remember, he knows how to sound out the words; you want him to comprehend them). Then discuss it. You'll know what word he might not know, etc. Ask him any of the following questions:
a. What is this whole paragraph about?
b. What is the main subject of this sentence?
c. What is the animal doing in this sentence? etc.
d. What do you think happened before to make the animal react that way?
e. ETC....focus on high level thinking, not rote memory, and definitely not "yes" or "no" questions.
I wouldn't worry about the type of comprehension that is reading something and then remembering afterward (answering questions without the material in front of you). I would focus on comprehending the text right in front of him, pointing to sentences, words, subjects, verbs, etc. and discussing them.
Lead him through it. If he says the whole sentence is about the cave, but it's really about the bears in the cave, ask him what the cave is doing. He will realize that the cave isn't doing anything. The bear is doing something in the cave, etc.
There are several ways to increase comprehension, and none of them comes from circling the main idea in a worksheet page or answering "memory questions" about the passage after you read it. They come from the following:
1. Vocabulary development--Root words, relating words to something you already know, figuring out words in context, etc. all build comprehension. If you don't know what the word "Uncompassionate" means, you can't possibly know that the paragraph is about "people who do not show they care." Comprehension first hinges on vocabulary.
2. Discussion about higher level materials read--There are two ways to determine readability:
a. Difficulty of the words as far as pronouncing/sounding them out
b. Comprehension of what he reads
Some students can word call anything put in front of them (much like reading "There's a Wocket in My Pocket"!). In these cases, to say a student can "read anything" simply isn't true. Yes, he can "word call" anything, but if he does not comprehend the words he is calling, the material really isn't "at his reading level"---it is just at his "word call level."
Thus, the gap between his "word call" level and his "comprehension" level needs to be bridged. This can be done by discussing the higher level material. It really doesn't matter whether you read it, he reads it to you, or you listen to it together (in the case of a talking book)--unless he is an extremely visual learner and comprehension doesn't take place unless he sees the text; I have a couple of students like this, and it is very different from my auditory learners. What matters is that discussion take place over this "higher level" material and thus, comprehension takes place.
I have come to the conclusion that this is why my kids love having Kayla for a big sister. She increases their comprehension of everything. Today is her first day at Huntington College (she's commuting as a senior in high school), and everyone here is having Kayla-withdrawal! In the first three hours she was gone, each of them said independently something like this: "I have all of my biology done except for one section; I need to wait and have Kayla help me on that," "I don't understand this US Government; when Kayla gets home, she can explain it to me," "Mom, this is serious. We can't function with her away all day. I NEED Kayla!" (Wait a minute, why don't they say that if I'm gone for the day!!! ????? tee hee)
Anyway, it's the discussions she has with them about EVERYTHING that increases their comprehension. (In fairness to me and Ray, we do the same things; we just don't talk about such "heady" things as US Gov and Biology with them!) It takes a lot of time to explain everything all the time, but that is how they learn. Ray is a master at this (and probably why Kayla naturally does it too). Everytime I'm trying to talk to him in the van, he holds up a finger to me to wait a second while he explains to the kids something along the road, in the ditch, on the highway, etc.--a building project, the meaning of this particular flashing light, how a nature scene reminds him of a Scripture, what material the pipes they are putting in the ground is made of, etc. That builds comprehension.
I know these types of activities will increase his comprehension, which will carry over to all of his subjects. Comprehension of information is the groundwork for all learning--oral, written, or auditory.
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