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This exercise has 30 short stories. Most of the words are 1 or 2 syllables. They are in simple sentences. Most sentences have 5 to 8 words. The student is asked to answer three direct questions that rely on facts in the story. These stories are aimed at very early readers so the questions are straightforward. They do not require making inferences or judgements. In most cases, the correct answer can be found word-for-word in the story. The fourth question usually requires the student to recall multiple items from the story. At the end of each story there is an open ended question for discussion. This exercise is intended to be used by parents, Speech-Language Pathologists, and Special Education Teachers with children who are having difficulty with reading. It can also be used for remediation of attention and processing deficits due to attention deficit disorder, traumatic brain injury, or stroke.
You can read the stories in any order, however we have provided a default order based on complexity, vocabulary, and number of details.
Read the first story. Pay close attention to details in the story. When you have finished reading, determine the overall theme. Then scroll down and demonstrate comprehension by answering four multiple choice questions. At the end there is an open-ended question for discussion.
The exercise scores correct and incorrect answers and keeps track of the questions that were answered incorrectly.A discussion of the answers is shown below them. Often the student focused on a detail of the story rather than seeing the big picture or recognized words or numbers in the answer and chose them because they were familiar. The discussion explains why some of the incorrect answers are wrong and the correct answer is right. After the student reads the explanation, they should answer the question again using the knowledge gained from the explanation.
The process for reading comprehension work is the same as for auditory comprehension, except you will ask your students to read the sentences, either aloud or to themselves, before creating the visual images to match. Proceed slowly through the process of imaging each sentence. Taking time to understand each new word or concept is important. It is possible to spend fifteen minutes or more on a story. This is not inefficient. You are teaching a process that will become faster and more reliable. Speed is not the primary objective when first learning to have efficient comprehension. The sequence should be: understand individual words, understand the sentence, understand how the sentence relates to the one before it, understand how the sentence relates to something you already know, understand how the sentence relates to yourself or the world, make a judgment on the new information.
The client will attend and utilize auditory and/or visual memory to process, remember, and use information presented at the single word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph levels.
Rationale: The paragraphs require multiple processing skills in attention, memory, and comprehension. Some individuals may need to address comprehension at the word or sentence level, but the eventual goal is comprehension at the paragraph level. It requires visual discrimination and reading comprehension. The developed higher level comprehension skills such as getting the main idea, inferring, predicting outcome, concluding consequences and evaluating the relevance of the material allow practice opportunities for improving reading comprehension and oral or written expressive language skills.
The paragraphs in this exercise were written for children and adults who are having reading comprehension problems. The sentences are much shorter than in normal writing. Often just fragments. And we have no problem starting sentences with conjunctions. We use the Oxford comma extensively because it helps with understanding—especially with long sentences. And we use “they” as a gender neutral singular pronoun.
Stories by Nancy Scarry, MFA.
© Copyright 2024 Learning Fundamentals 1130 Grove Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805.544.0775;