READING BEYOND DECODING:
Early years teachers have wonderful skills in teaching the building blocks of reading and there are many exciting phonic programs to make this teaching systematic and fun. Research shows that we are doing less well in the teaching of reading comprehension beyond
the decoding stage. The Report of the Rand Reading Study Group (2002) found that “many children who read at a 3rd grade level in grade 3 will not automatically become proficient comprehenders in later grades”. Unfortunately more recent research shows little improvement over the last decade.
In order to move student abilities to both decode and comprehend to increasingly higher levels we need to focus on:
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Building a sturdy vocabulary of not only tier 1 words, but also tier 2 and 3 words.
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Offering literary and non-literary texts that engage, entertain and inform readers.
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Consciously challenging students with texts that demand intellectual rigour.
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Using well respected thinking skills organisers to channel student thinking.
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Giving students a language to describe and explain their comprehending process.
LINKING TO LITERACY provides resources to fill these needs. They consist of:
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Sets of 10 engaging literary and non-literary texts in 4 levels – Early, Lower, Middle and Upper.
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comprehension activities based on:
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The 4 Roles of the Reader (Luke & Freebody 1990)
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The de Bono Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono 1984)
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Bloom’s Thinking Skill Taxonomy (Benjamin Bloom 1956)
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The 4 Quadrants of the Brain (Ned Hermann 1979)
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Question Levels (John Langrehr 1988)
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Before, During and After Reading
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Focus & Retrieve, Make an Inference, Integrate and Interpret, Examine, Evaluate and Respond (NAPLAN)
The Early texts (de Bono, Bloom and 4 Roles of the Reader) have sample answers to assist parent helpers who may be working with students
Each individual set of 10 activities is priced at A$20.00 each [includes FREE delivery].
