Reading Comprehension. Digraphs and Blends. Part 3
The act of reading and the act of comprehending what you read are two very different things. Reading requires the fluent parsing and blending various phonetic sounds to create words. Reading Comprehension, on the other hand, involves thinking about the words that were just read and deriving a meaning, for just those words and the text as a whole!
The point of reading isn’t to make sounds in your brain or out loud, but rather, to understand important lessons, stories and arguments. Through the act of writing, our ancestors have recorded important knowledge that we can understand simply by reading. By understanding what we read, we pick up important information, understand scientific theories, past opinions and new frontiers.
Having excellent reading comprehension skills is crucial. It increases the enjoyment and effectiveness of reading and helps not only academically, but professionally, and in a person’s personal life. Imagine, for example, that your boss gives you a complicated document: you can read the words, but you cannot understand what the document is telling you.
Remember, building Reading Comprehension will take time. Comprehension is built on phonetic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary, and / or language arts. Stick to your daily reading practice (especially when you want to give up) and remind your child that it is important to understand every single word / sentence / paragraph / story they read.
Samples From the Worksheet
Obviously, this is an extreme example but sadly, classrooms across the nation are interspersed with students who experience the same type of frustration every day. They don’t possess adequate reading comprehension skills to do what is expected of them. Without comprehension, reading is simply following words on a page from left to right while sounding them out. The words on the page have no meaning.
And while people read for many different reasons, the chief goal is to derive some understanding of what the writer is trying to convey and make use of that information – whether for fact gathering, learning a new skill, or for pleasure.
That’s why reading comprehension skills are so important. Without them the reader cannot gather any information and use it to efficiently function and enjoy the richness of life.
