I have two second grade students who can easily read level 34 DRA with 99% accuracy. Unfortunately, their attention interferes with comprehension. I've used shorter text. I tried chapter books with real short chapters. We've tried stopping to check for understanding. We've drawn pictures we get in our mind along the way. We've discussed the chapters together... but in the end, they score 60% on the comprehension quiz. What strategies should I try next?
Not sure if you do this already, but make sure they are doing before reading, during reading, and after reading monitoring/comprehension stuff. Before reading, have them do a picture walk to figure out the book is about, point out things they should pay attention to,etc. During reading, continue to have them stop, answer questions, etc. When I student taught (5th grade), we had the students bullet while they read...they bulleted important information...this might be too hard for 2nd grader though. Continue to check for understanding during and after reading . I have a fifth grader with attention issues and I have him write the main thing about each page on a sticky note. He then sticks it to that page and we talk about it. Could you do something like that with your 2nd graders? Even if they drew pictures instead of words on their sticky notes?
Also, I'm not familiar with DRA. Are they scoring 60% on comprehension where they should be or higher than where should be? Some kids are amazingly accurate readings (just like some kids are horrible at reading aloud)...just because they can read accurately doesn't mean they should comprehend...even if they can decode/read the words, the meaning still might be above them.
Did they independently complete the comprehension written part of the levels prior to level 34 with at least 90% accuracy? If not, they are not truely at the level 34. DRA is a total score which includes comprehension along with fluency and acccuracy. The ending level for 2nd grade is 28. That means they read with fluency, accuracy and comprehension. I have a student who can easily read level 40, but cannot complete the written comprehension past 28. So her correct level is 28, not 40. To give a child a higher level than they are comprehending is doing nothing but giving them credit for decoding...saying lists of words with no connection. Take this child back to level 28 and see how they do independently on written comprehension. If not there. take the child back until you find out the true level.
I completely agree that their true reading level is where their fluency, accuracy, and comprehension match. Both students do well with shorter text and picture books at their true level. It's making that jump into longer text at that level that becomes the challenge.
Thank you Teacherbee_4 for some more things to try. I like Sevarg's tips as well. The story map crossed my mind but I can't wait to try the five finger retell. If anyone else has some things to try, I would certainly appreciate it.
Just to put this in a perspective, if I were to read from a physics books, I could accurately READ it but have no idea what I was reading. Same idea, right?
For your second graders, a fun activity could be a stop and predict activity. You choose a book that has good stopping points (where there is about to be some change happening.) Stop and have the kids discuss WHAT they think will happen next and WHY they think this will happen. This will force them to use context clues to make inferences about they story. You can guide them to learn that a story gives you clues as to what is going on. While the kids might be 'thinking' things or making connections to the text, the 'right answer' isn't always these connections, but rather something that makes sense for the story.
Stop every few pages and have them do this over and over to build their understanding that clues in the text ( character, setting, dialogue, action) effect what happens.
Last thought: for me, I was always a great reader but scored low on comprehension. On tests, I always picked what I thought a god answer was. How I felt about it, what I would have done if I were the character, how I felt when something happened, the best word I thought described a scene. I was reflecting my feelings through the text when I really needed to respond to the elements of the text. I needed to learn to separate these two things to 'get the right answers' on the test.
I haven't taught in a primary grade in the last 5 years; however, I use these with all of my 4th-5th grade students and have seen AMAZING growth in comprehension.
I agree with the other comments in that if the comprehension is weak the students are not at a DRA 34. I'd go back to reassess. What was the last level they actually passed? Go up from there. During guided reading, with the students reading at their true instructional levels, you should see more success with comprehension activities.
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02-16-2012, 04:23 PM
