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Part 2: The Importance of Teaching Comprehension, F-2

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The Importance of Teaching Comprehension in Foundation to Year 2: Insights from Diane Snowball

Teaching comprehension in the early years lays the foundation for lifelong literacy. Diane Snowball's recent podcast offers a wealth of wisdom on how teachers can seamlessly integrate decoding and comprehension to empower their youngest learners. Let's unpack her insights with practical strategies and examples to guide your teaching journey.

The Magic of Shared Reading and Cohesive Ties

Imagine opening The Very Hungry Caterpillar and reading:

"In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf. One Sunday morning, the warm sun came up, and pop, out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. He started to look for some food."

Who is "he"? This is a golden opportunity to teach about cohesive ties—words like he, himself, or his that connect ideas across a text. Diane emphasises explicitly teaching children to look back in the text to identify who or what these words refer to. In this case, he refers to the caterpillar, a link supported by both the words and illustrations.

This explicit instruction equips students with strategies to decode similar references in future readings. Cohesive ties are not limited to fiction; they're equally vital in nonfiction and should be highlighted across all text types.

Inferring: A Superpower for Comprehension

Inferring is about reading between the lines—piecing together clues from text and illustrations. For instance, in the book Saturday Mornings:

"I love Saturday mornings. My brother washes the car, and I often help."

Who is "I"? The text doesn't explicitly name the narrator, but students can infer that it's the boy in the illustration.

Similarly, in Rosie's Walk, the text doesn't mention the fox's antics, yet the illustrations reveal them. Teaching children to observe and interpret these visual cues deepens their understanding and helps them construct a fuller narrative.

Integrated Learning: Decoding and Comprehension Together

Diane passionately advocates for merging decoding with comprehension. Teaching these skills separately can diminish the joy and purpose of reading. Shared reading provides the perfect bridge by allowing teachers to:

  • Model fluent reading.
  • Point to words as they're read aloud.
  • Discuss sounds, word meanings, and sentence structure in context.

Repeated readings build familiarity, helping students link decoding with understanding. Shared reading also provides a natural setting for teaching phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies simultaneously.

Writing to Reinforce Reading

Writing offers students a chance to apply their understanding of language. In shared writing sessions, teachers can model sentences like:

"The dog ate a bone."

Extend this by combining sentences:

"The dog ate a bone that was big."

Through these activities, students learn about sentence structure and cohesive ties in a meaningful context. Writing and reading work hand in hand to solidify literacy skills.

Why Quality Texts Matter

Diane urges teachers to carefully choose texts that:

  • Feature cohesive ties and opportunities for inference.
  • Incorporate rich vocabulary and varied sentence structures.
  • Serve multiple purposes, such as read-alouds, phonics lessons, and shared writing.

Revisiting high-quality texts simplifies planning while maximising learning. Nursery rhymes, picture books, and early readers are ideal for integrating comprehension instruction.

Progression in Comprehension from Foundation to Year 2

While comprehension strategies like predicting, making connections, and inferring remain consistent, the complexity of texts evolves. Here's how:

  • Increased Complexity: Texts progress from simple narratives to those with richer vocabulary and multiple layers of meaning.
  • Diverse Topics: Early years focus on familiar themes like family, but topics expand to include history, ecosystems, and other abstract subjects.
  • Nonfiction Integration: As students grow, nonfiction texts play a crucial role in building content knowledge and vocabulary.

For instance, Foundation students might explore a book about pets, while Year 2 students delve into animal habitats. The strategies they apply stay constant, but their thinking becomes more sophisticated.

Building Content Knowledge for Better Comprehension

Diane highlights the importance of background knowledge in comprehension. Teachers should:

  • Introduce diverse topics across grades.
  • Avoid repeating the same themes each year.
  • Expand vocabulary alongside knowledge.

For example, if a student loves crocodiles, introducing related topics like reptiles or rainforest ecosystems keeps their learning fresh and engaging.

Motivating Young Readers

Motivation fuels literacy success. Students thrive when they:

  • Have access to high-quality, varied reading materials.
  • Are allowed to choose books that align with their interests.
  • Encounter texts that reflect their abilities and preferences.

Providing a mix of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry ensures every child finds something to love.

Fluency: The Bridge to Understanding

Fluency is more than reading quickly—it's about expression, pacing, and comprehension. To foster fluency:

  • Encourage rereading familiar texts to build confidence.
  • Use shared reading and Reader's Theatre to practice expression.
  • Provide models of fluent reading for students to emulate.

Fluency helps children move from decoding individual words to grasping the text's overall meaning.

A Balanced Approach to Literacy

Diane's insights remind us that literacy instruction is about integration, not isolation. Effective teaching combines decoding and comprehension into cohesive, purposeful activities. By focusing on shared reading, cohesive ties, inference, and high-quality texts, teachers can create a literacy-rich environment that sets students on the path to lifelong learning.

The key takeaway? Literacy success starts with intentional, integrated instruction—and a deep love of reading.

Listen to the podcast here

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