"CONNECTION!"

I absolutely loved reading the article titled, "Kindergartners Can Do It, Too! Comprehension Strategies for Early Readers." In this article, Gregory and Cahill discussed the benefits of explicit reading comprehension instruction for kindergartners. Previously, explicit teaching of reading comprehension techniques and inference did not occur at the primary grade level. Gregory and Cahill cite research indicating that kindergartners are in fact capable of absorbing and applying explicit comprehension instruction.

This article elaborates on techniques employed by a Kindergarten teacher that actively engage students and foster reading comprehension. Ms. Hope instructed her students to employ different hand signals to indicate how they are making meaning out of the story being read to them. If a student makes the letter "C" with his hands, Ms. Hope knows that this particular student has a connection to the content of the book. If a student makes the letter "V" with his hands, Ms. Hope knows that this student has created a "mind movie" or visualization from the text. If a student wiggles his index finger up and down, Ms. Hope knows that this student has a question about the text.

Reading about these hand signals was so much fun for me because I actually got to witness these hand signals being put to use during a classroom observation. Actually, the teacher I observed employed many of the techniques proposed in this article.

Source

For my Reading Inquiry project, I observed a first grade classroom. The teacher read the book, "Officer Buckle and Gloria," by Peggy Rathmann. I was delighted to witness such student enthusiasm about this Caldecott winning book. Students were reaching their little hands as high as they could go, eager for the teacher to call on them to share their connections or mind movies. Most students wanted to share connections. These connections really seemed to make the text and illustrations more meaningful and relevant to the students. Each child was desperate to share a little tid-bit about his or her own dog.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to observe these comprehension strategies in a natural context. I can't believe how effective these practices seemed to be! The fact that kindergartners and first graders can grasp concepts such as schema and inference is impressive. Student application of this knowledge to help them understand texts more deeply and comprehensively is even more impressive.

Kindergartners and first-graders are so smart!

How can teachers encourage students to offer connections and mind movies without having to ignore some students due to lack of time?  Unfortunately, there is probably not enough time within a school day for each student to share connections.  During my observation, I realized that some students seemed discouraged when they were not called on to share. 

Also, can you think of any other ways that students could interact with the text in such a way that promotes comprehension?  Specifically, can you think of any other practices that could facilitate inference?