Comprehension of Narrative Text Strategies for Fourth Grade
1. Reciprocal Questioning:
Description: Teacher and student take turns asking each other questions.
Purpose: Most children ask literal questions, you can model higher-level thinking by asking inferential, critical, and evaluative questions.
*Directions: Begin reading a story with your students. After you reach a certain point in the story, instruct the students to ask each other a literal question. Once the students have asked each other a literal question, pose a literal or inferential question to the students. Once you have posed a literal or inferential question to your students, read another section of the story and repeat the process.
Here is an explanation of the different kinds of questions that you can ask your students.
1. Literal questions. Literal questions can be found on the page; the purpose of a literal question is to check a reader's ability to recall information stated in the book.
2. Inferential questions. The answers to inferential questions are not written word for word in the text. In order to answer inferential questions, students need to read between the lines.
3. Critical questions. Critical questions require a reader to analyze and synthesize in order to give a correct answer. This may require the student to gather information from a number of books or from their personal experiences.
4. Evaluative questions. Evaluative questions have no right or wrong answers. A reader will give their own opinions, but they must provide sound reasoning.
*This can be done in a whole group setting, small group setting, or a one to one setting with the students.
2. Repeated Readings:
Description: Allows students to focus less on decoding words and mroe on comprehending the story.
Purpose: Repeated readings by the teacher give struggling readers an opportunity to understand multiple layers of meaning in their favorite stories. Repeated readings by both the teacher and struggling reader have been shown to increase comprehension.
Directions: Select a favorite story of one of your students that has previously been read before. Re-read the story aloud with your students and create a discussion based upon the story. During the reading of the story, you can ask your students questions about the characters' motives and how the setting affects the action in the story. A repeated reading allow students to focus less on decoding words and more on comprehending the story and allows the readers to make inferences about the characters within the story.
Description: Teacher and student take turns asking each other questions.
Purpose: Most children ask literal questions, you can model higher-level thinking by asking inferential, critical, and evaluative questions.
*Directions: Begin reading a story with your students. After you reach a certain point in the story, instruct the students to ask each other a literal question. Once the students have asked each other a literal question, pose a literal or inferential question to the students. Once you have posed a literal or inferential question to your students, read another section of the story and repeat the process.
Here is an explanation of the different kinds of questions that you can ask your students.
1. Literal questions. Literal questions can be found on the page; the purpose of a literal question is to check a reader's ability to recall information stated in the book.
2. Inferential questions. The answers to inferential questions are not written word for word in the text. In order to answer inferential questions, students need to read between the lines.
3. Critical questions. Critical questions require a reader to analyze and synthesize in order to give a correct answer. This may require the student to gather information from a number of books or from their personal experiences.
4. Evaluative questions. Evaluative questions have no right or wrong answers. A reader will give their own opinions, but they must provide sound reasoning.
*This can be done in a whole group setting, small group setting, or a one to one setting with the students.
2. Repeated Readings:
Description: Allows students to focus less on decoding words and mroe on comprehending the story.
Purpose: Repeated readings by the teacher give struggling readers an opportunity to understand multiple layers of meaning in their favorite stories. Repeated readings by both the teacher and struggling reader have been shown to increase comprehension.
Directions: Select a favorite story of one of your students that has previously been read before. Re-read the story aloud with your students and create a discussion based upon the story. During the reading of the story, you can ask your students questions about the characters' motives and how the setting affects the action in the story. A repeated reading allow students to focus less on decoding words and more on comprehending the story and allows the readers to make inferences about the characters within the story.