Teaching Comprehension

When I was in elementary school, I remember having to read stories and then complete worksheets that included questions about the book.  Some questions would be simple facts, but others were more complex and difficult.  After listening to my teachers think aloud and explain their strategies for reading the text and answering the questions, it all made more sense to me.  I comprehended text better once they taught me ways to do so which actually makes perfect sense.  How can we test for comprehension without first teaching our students how to comprehend?  Gill (2008) stresses the importance of directly teaching comprehension strategies and suggests using the Comprehension Matrix when planning instruction, because it takes into consideration the reader, the text, and the situation during prereading, reading, and postreading activities.  Some strategies that should be taught include connecting, questioning, visualizing, inferring, predicting, and evaluating.  Gregory and Cahill (2010) even point out that students as young as kindergartners are capable of learning these.  

Check out this idea I found and can't wait to try!  Anytime students use one of the comprehension strategies, they can fill out a "Thinkmark".

For these free printables click here!

You can use a few or all of the strategies and come up with your own codes for them depending on grade levels and personal preference.  Then get a discussion going by having students share and compare their Thinkmarks after reading.

Source

Here's a question: Do you think Thinkmarks could also be beneficial when students are reading for social studies or science?