Comprehension

When I first begin thinking about the different methods our CT uses I cannot think of many right off the bat because most interaction in my Kindergarten classroom is recitation. It is not probable that we could ever get our group of Kindergartners to discuss an idea. Recitation takes up most of the afternoon, after lunch. Our CT asks questions about the book he has read and the students answer. This is similar to the QAR method. However, many of the responses are only text-to-self. Some times there may be a text-to-world connection, but very few; and never any text-to-text connections. Sometimes there are so many student that want to share their story that he has them partner up and share their stories with a partner. This could begin instigating some discussion about a certain topic, but there is no way to asses it.
Throughout all of the morning, our class has centers. Many of the activities that they perform require what they have learned by rote learning. Numbers on a number line, the alphabet, etc. The center time lasts the whole morning. Most of the class is still unable to read simple books yet, this hinders them from reading to comprehend. The majority of their comprehension has to come from what they see on the page (illustrations) and what they hear. Many students are able to pull ideas from a story audibly because that is how they have been comprehending whenever they read with another person.
Only once this year have I seen our CT use a Venn Diagram as a comprehension strategy. He used it to compare how baby animals and baby humans are alike and different. I am unsure if this was useful for their comprehension at a Kindergarten level, however, it exposes them to the strategy when they use it again in higher grades.
Many in our class are left fielders, however, one in particular can never answer a question. He always has his hand raised, but when called on he stares at us blankly. After a whole year I would have guessed that he would change and begin to have an answer when he raised his hand. He has never answered a question in class, yet. It troubles me because I have no idea how to go about retrieving an answer from him. Applegate suggest modeling as an intervention to begin showing him how to begin listening to a story for understanding. If I was to work one on one with this focus student I would show him how I would begin reading a book and what I would be listening for as I listened to our CT read the story. Perhaps these methods would help him begin picking main ideas from the story.