[amcal]

DD is in kindergarten and has learned to read this year. She struggled a bit in the beginning but is now flying through her books. She loves reading. But, I'm finding that just because she can read the words, it doesn't mean that she's completely understanding what she's reading.<br><br>
I think a lot of it has to do with punctuation. She doesn't alway understand what the different punctuation means. ie.... "Clark!", yelled mom. "Quick! Run to the store." She asked. "I've run out of milk".<br><br>
Her books at this point have tons of quotations, commas, exclamation points and they are using words that have different meanings (ie... run as in go fast and run out of milk - lots of books have buy,bye and by etc...).<br><br>
Sometimes she will read the words and just look at me with a blank expression.<br><br>
I don't think her school is teaching much about punctuation. I think they've touched on it but really, it seems like I've taught her more at home than they're teaching her at school<br><br>
Anyway, I'm wondering if comprehension should be coming at the same time or does comprehension come as they get more comfortable reading?

 

[pigpokey]

You may want to try Modeled Oral Reading with her. She reads the words silently. Then you read them out loud, the way they should be read according to the punctuation. Then she reads them to you the way you did.

 

[Llyra]

A lot of casual conversations about books and what is happening in the books will really boost comprehension. Stop frequently while she's reading or you're reading and just talk over what just happened, and what she thinks will maybe happen next, and help her clarify the meaning or reread if she hasn't understood. Between times, have conversations about books she's read before like remember when so and so in that book did such and such, especially when you can relate the books to her own life experiences. Keep it low-pressure and joyful and I'll bet you'll see improvement gradually. That's what I do in my work (I'm a reading teacher).

 

[LilyGrace]

I've found with my oldest, comprehension for the longest time was about 2 levels below what he was reading comfortably. He needed to not have to work on learning the words in order to gain understanding, or not having to understand fully to learn the words. About the point he could read easy chapter books (like Amelia Bedelia), he had more fun with Dr. Seuss.<br><br>
To work on punctuation, we used audio books with the text, and made up our own signals. A comma was one heartbeat. A period was two.

 

[CarrieMF]

Comprehension is usually behind.<br><br>
My dd in Grade 1 has a reading ABILITY of Grade 4.6, has a COMPREHENSION of Grade 2.6 so they had her reading Grade 2.2 books to give her the challenge of getting more Comprehension without them being TOO easy.

 

[amcal]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>CarrieMF</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/10279038"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Comprehension is usually behind.<br><br>
My dd in Grade 1 has a reading ABILITY of Grade 4.6, has a COMPREHENSION of Grade 2.6 so they had her reading Grade 2.2 books to give her the challenge of getting more Comprehension without them being TOO easy.</div>
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<br>
Thank you!<br><br>
We do talk about the stories and she can get some of it but sometimes, sentences just don't make sense to her because of the way the punctuation is. When I read it to her, she totally gets it or, if she's just read a sentence that doesn't make sense to her, I'll read it again with the correct pauses and inflection for the differences in punctuation and then she'll get it but, it's just figuring out how the punctuation changes the sentence that seems to get her hung up.

 

[LynnS6]

Decoding and comprehending are different skills.<br><br>
As pps have mentioned, you work on comprehension by making the decoding easy. So, our ds who is in 1st grade and can decode words that are probably 2nd-3rd grade words, but not actually get anything out of them when they're in connected text. Thus, he is still reading Level 1 readers or easy phonics books when he does his reading out loud at home with me. (They are working on punctuation in his class though - he thinks it's hysterical, he'll write Daddy? Daddy! Daddy. And the get me to read them out loud with the different intonations.)<br><br>
We work on 'comprehension' by having ME read chapter books that are above his current decoding level. We read Magic Tree House books (that he could theoretically decode on his own, but he couldn't get the story), Beverly Cleary books, Little House books, and the like.<br><br>
I would make the books easier for her to read until she can read with expression.

 

[mamabear&babybear]

It sounds like she is having the most trouble with punctuation, correct? Reading punctuation is generally not something that schools spend a lot of time on. Here are a few ideas that might help.<br><br>
If you have a overhead sheet put it over a page in her book that has a bunch of punctuation. Give her a red overhead pen. As she is reading tell her that periods, question marks, and exclamation points are red lights like when you drive. When you come to one you stop. Then give her a yellow pen and tell her that commas, colons, semicolons tell her to pause. As she reads she can mark with the pen all the punctuation. The marking forces her to pause or stop on all punctuation.<br><br>
The quotes are a tougher concept. One thing that would help is to write stories with her. You would probably have to lead this quite a bit. You could write the story of something fun that you did that day. Something like:<br>
Today was a very special day. DD woke up first,<br>
and the first thing she did when she woke up was to tell<br>
her mom and dad, "Good morning." Her mom and dad in turn said,<br>
"Good morning" to DD.<br>
Keep going using as many quotes as you can come up with. Eventually after writing them enough she would be able to read them as well.<br><br>
The other issue is that many times kids have to decode so many words that they lose the intent of the sentence. If it takes her awhile to decode 1 or 2 words in the sentence then she might need to go back and reread the sentence without having to pause and decode. HTH

 

[amcal]

Thank you Amy! Yes, that's exactly it. She seems to loose her way when there is a lot of punctuation. Maybe calling it comprehension isn't the right word because she does understand what she's reading when there isn't a ton of punctuation but when there is a ton of punctuation, she seem to just have everything flow together and then it doesn't make sense to her.<br><br>
I love the red light, yellow light idea! I can totally see that working for her. Thank you!

 

[mamabear&babybear]

I taught beginning readers for five years and picked up a few things. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/winky.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink"> Would love to know how it goes.