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main page. Three skills make up what we call "reading:"
Good readers don't use these skills in isolation. For example, read this paragraph:
"Billy watched the elequardests parade around the circus ring. the elequardest in front held his trunk high in the air, as if he were proud to be the leader. The next one wrapped his trunk around the leader's tail. All the other elequardests did the same, forming a procession of huge animals working together flawlessly. Billy realized that these elequardests were extremely intelligent animals, and he wanted to know more about them."
When you read that paragraph, you knew most of the words on sight. However, there was one you hadn't seen before.
You probably figured out by the second sentence that an elequardest was actually an elephant. Now consider the plight of the child who has trouble reading.
The child who reads slowly and laboriously--because of poor word attack skills and/or inadequate sight vocabulary--might be able to plow through the paragraph about the "elequardests." However, most of his energy would go into reading the individual words. Since many of the words would be new or unkown ones, they wouldn't stick in his memory. He would get little or now meaning out of what he read.
Another child (often children with ADD) might have trouble comprehending because he doesn't always pay full attention to what he's reading. This inattention could happen in several ways:
He might see the new word "elequardest" and impatiently skip over it instead of trying to figure it out. That interruption might be enough to diminish his attentional level for the rest of the paragraph, resulting in poor comprehension.
He could impulsively substitute another word he already knew that started with "ele"--for instance, "elevator." Such a choice would destroy his comprehension:
"Billy watched the elevators parade around the circus ring. The elevator in front held his trunk high in the air..."
The interruption might diminish his attention so completely that he wouldn't notice that his substitution made *no sense at all.*
Warning: Use this method only if your child has learned the vowel sounds already but just doesn't use the skill. This method is not a good way to teach vowel sounds for the first time.
Materials:
Together, you and your child make "cue cards." Decide what picture will stand for reach vowel sound, such as an elephant for short e.
Draw the picture on the card--or cut one out from a comic strip and glue it on the card.
He can use these cards to help him decide which vowel sound he needs; the picture will help him remember what each vowel sounds like.
Warning: Don't make your child sound out all words, all the time. Sounding out words takes so much effort for some children it interferes with comprehension. When the reading goal is comprehension, put the emphasis on understanding, not phonics. If he's reading for recreation or to study, just tell him the words he doesn't know. However, if the homework is a phonics assignment, then he should use his phonics skills while completing it.
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on Taming the Dragons: Real Help for Real School Problems.
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TAMING THE DRAGONS: REAL HELP FOR REAL SCHOOL PROBLEMS. Copyright Susan Setley, 1995. All rights reserved. For ordering information call Starfish Publishing Company (314) 367-9611
If you have comments or questions, drop a line to me at susans29@aol.com.
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