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Original poster

English Comprehension problems

14 replies

wahwahwah · 05/12/2011 15:03

Am going slowly mad...

DS (8 years) isn't dumb. In Maths, French, Non verbal reasoning, English, her is 2-3 years ahead of his age.

However, he can read a comprehension paper and have no clue about what he has just read. Nada. He is a bookworm and loves to read but I am completely at a loss as to how he can't answer a simple 'why did Billy opens he window?' or 'how do we know that Mrs Smith was happy to see Fred'. his first language is English and he had quiet a wide volcabulary.

I just don't know how to get him to 'see it'. He is sitting 8+ in January and I am pooing myself that he will hand in a blank sheet!

OP posts:
AMumInScotland · 05/12/2011 15:24

You maybe need to take him through a strategy for finding the answer a few times, to show him how you would go about it?

So "why did Billy open the window?"

1 - can you remember anything about Billy opening the window?
2 - if you can remember it at all, can you remember why he did it?
3 - if not, can you remember if was early in the story or nearer the end?
4 - you need to look at the story again and find the bit where Billy opens the window
5 - now you've found it, what does it say about it?
6 - so how can you answer the question (presumably making a proper sentence)?

For ones where the question is "how did someone feel" or "how do we know how they felt" it's more about finding the words the writer used about it and explaining what that means in another way, but the first step is still to find what the writer said, and work from there.

Original poster
wahwahwah · 05/12/2011 15:30

Sometimes he will tell me he answer then write a pile or crap bearing no resemblance! Very frustrating, considering what both parents do for livings!

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AMumInScotland · 05/12/2011 15:31

Children are strange.....

Original poster
wahwahwah · 05/12/2011 15:42

Bad mummy asked him if he spoke English as a first language... Poor little bugger!

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SantasHat · 05/12/2011 15:58

Does he like hi-lighters? Colour the words where the answer is contained.
Then teach him how to craft an answer from those words.
This requires him to use what I call "Thomas -speak" or "John-speak" (whatever he is called) and the words he hi-lighted.
This method is a bit hit and miss but it has always worked with children I tutor.

Original poster
wahwahwah · 05/12/2011 16:29

Tutor, eh.... ? Where are you?

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claig · 05/12/2011 17:20

Agree with SantasHat, get him to locate the area of the passage where the answer lies.

It seems that he is glossing over the passage, probably because he thinks it is easy and not looking at the detail.

Show him where the answer lies and how to extract it from the detail.

Original poster
wahwahwah · 05/12/2011 18:36

He is one of those kids who can pour over a maths paper but when it comes to comprehension had the magic roundabout playing on loop in his head.

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SantasHat · 05/12/2011 21:37

Northwest England.
Some children can DECODE each word but don't string the words into sentences. If that makes sense!
Try getting him to read a bit of his own book - whatever story he likes. Then get him to RETELL that bit orally to you. That should be useful and let him see the thread and understand it.

sarahfreck · 06/12/2011 10:41

I teach the children I tutor that there is a totally different reading skill required for comprehension than for reading for pleasure. Often fluent readers are used to reading books for pleasure very fast, skimming over the sentences and not reading every word. They still get the gist of the story.

With comprehension, I get them to SLOW DOWN massively to start with. I make them read the passage aloud, slowly and with expression. (They don't like this - "why can't I just read in my head" - I think they think reading aloud is babyish!) I make them stop after every paragraph and tell me about what they have just read. I sometimes ask them to highlight or underline key words in passage or question.

Then I teach them the skills of looking back at the passage and checking relevant parts. Often they are under the misapprehension that it is somehow "cleverer" to do all the questions from memory.

Basically, I think you need to deconstruct the process of answering comprehension questions and teach them the separate individual skills required. Then put it all back together.

Original poster
wahwahwah · 06/12/2011 11:38

Thanks guys, these sound like good strategies. He is an increadibly verbal child and can do the non verbal reasoning Bond books very easily for 9-10 years. I am generally good at these IQ/MENSA type tests but sometimes he even has to explain them to me!

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Original poster
wahwahwah · 06/12/2011 11:40

Oh and like me, he races thought everything!

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Original poster
wahwahwah · 06/12/2011 11:44

Oh and like me, he races though everything!

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Bonsoir · 06/12/2011 11:51

You need to practice walking him through reading comprehension orally, using the following method:

  • get him to read the text to you out loud and ask him to ask you the meaning of any words he doesn't understand (you will be able to check whether he has an issue with vocabulary)
  • get him to read the text to himself
  • ask him to read each question out loud to you and ask him in which sentence(s) of the text he can find the answer to the question. IME, this is the trickiest issue in reading comprehension for most children
  • get him to tell you the answer orally in a full sentence. Help him initially to reframe the question and the text in a grammatical sentence.
  • if the answer requires an inference, you may need to talk this through with him so that he understands the difference between questions where he lifts information directly from the text and questions where he needs to infer an answer
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