Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
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Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Hi all
Great forum!
I really need advice regarding my son doing comprehension. Any links to websites or resources please
I have literally left preparation until now for the 11+ having only decided now to have my DS sit the 11+
The problem is he was always one of the top students in his class until last year when he had a terrible teacher for year 4.
Its my fault because I still assumed he was doing ok until now! I realise he finds comprehension difficult. I have been doing some of the bond papers with him and he is scoring quite badly (40-50%).
He will be sitting for Wallington, Sutton, Wilson and Tiffins
Any advice or links to resources would be appreciated.
Great forum!
I really need advice regarding my son doing comprehension. Any links to websites or resources please
I have literally left preparation until now for the 11+ having only decided now to have my DS sit the 11+
The problem is he was always one of the top students in his class until last year when he had a terrible teacher for year 4.
Its my fault because I still assumed he was doing ok until now! I realise he finds comprehension difficult. I have been doing some of the bond papers with him and he is scoring quite badly (40-50%).
He will be sitting for Wallington, Sutton, Wilson and Tiffins
Any advice or links to resources would be appreciated.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Don't worry! It happens to the best of the kids. Try Hayden Richard, Collins level 5 english, Bond comprehension age 10-11 and 11-12, Schofield and sims comprehension books, First aid in English. Reading helps more than anything. Good Luck!
Having one child makes you a parent; having two you are a referee.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Hi there.Naga7 wrote:Hi all
Great forum!
I really need advice regarding my son doing comprehension. Any links to websites or resources please
I have literally left preparation until now for the 11+ having only decided now to have my DS sit the 11+
The problem is he was always one of the top students in his class until last year when he had a terrible teacher for year 4.
Its my fault because I still assumed he was doing ok until now! I realise he finds comprehension difficult. I have been doing some of the bond papers with him and he is scoring quite badly (40-50%).
He will be sitting for Wallington, Sutton, Wilson and Tiffins
Any advice or links to resources would be appreciated.
Which Bond papers is he scoring low in?
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Thanks for your replies
He is doing the Bond papers for age 10-11.
thanks
He is doing the Bond papers for age 10-11.
thanks
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Maybe you can read the comprehension with him. Make sure he understands it. Let him go through the questions on his own. Then tell him to underline keys; from where the answers are derived.Naga7 wrote:Thanks for your replies
He is doing the Bond papers for age 10-11.
thanks
Try Hayden Richard. Cant recommend it enough. It is a bit easier, will get your child's confidence right back up Have a look through it in any of the book stores.
Having one child makes you a parent; having two you are a referee.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
that particular Bond book is soul destroying so far ahead of the exams. Put it away and do others at this stage. Just some helpful advice from bitter experience.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
if you read together or watch the news you can help by asking questions about the content..why do you thik hey said that? how did it make you feel happy/sad/scared? etc.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
You could also have a go at the easier Bond papers until his confidence improves. 9-10 papers are much easier and he will get a better score.
You can also make your own comprehension papers by copying a passage and asking questions relating to the passage. He could help make some comprehension papers too, which would encourage him to think about the text in detail.
You can also make your own comprehension papers by copying a passage and asking questions relating to the passage. He could help make some comprehension papers too, which would encourage him to think about the text in detail.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
Try Schofield and Sims comprehension Book 3 (or Book 2 if necessary) as this is more manageable than Bond initially.
Re: Terrible at Comprehension: Please help!
When you say he is bad at comprehension, what exactly do you mean? Is it that he doesn't understand what he reads but would do if you read it to him, wouldn't understand it if you read it to him either, can't answer the questions accurately, or invents the answers rather than finding the material that backs it up from the comprehension passage? Or is his vocabulary not rich enough for the level of passage you are setting him? I'm sure it's fine if there are a small number of words that are not understood in the passage as they can probably be worked out from the context; the important thing is that it does not panic the child on the first read through.
We did a lot of comprehension passages at my prep school ......... this is the technique I remember and it seemed to work extremely well ...... read all the passage, then read all the questions, then read the all passage again, then read question 1 and answer it referring back to the passage.
My DH said he just read the passage then answered the questions without ever looking back at the passage. He was amazed that any child might look at the passage more than once.
They don't do much comprehension at my daughter's state school - so the SATs reading papers probably come as a shock. And for the first three years of school they seemed to want children to guess at stuff which wasn't actually intended by the author and give answers which may or may not have been right. When a book doesn't have many words or much of a storyline you can't do much more than the "what might happen next" type questions or "why might she be sad?" etc etc. I do not remember "real" comprehension passages being like that, so maybe it comes as a shock in year 4 if you are doing comprehension which is not like this.
Is answering in full sentences also required? Some children don't like having to do that or can't. A good game to play is one where you ask questions and try and trick the other person into not answering in full sentences. e.g. your son asks you questions (any old thing e.g. how old are you?). You have to answer in full sentences e.g. I am one hundred years old. If you do not answer in full sentences you swap around and you start asking the questions. Some questions require very contrived answers to reply to in a full sentence so it's great practice without the slog of writing anything down. You can play it in the car, anywhere, with other siblings etc etc.
Don't be demoralised. It can't truly be his "comprehension" that is poor - otherwise he would not understand anything he read or heard - and that's not the case is it? It's his technique for this kind of exercise that is currently poor, and you are well placed to work out which aspect it is of his technique that needs to improve.
We did a lot of comprehension passages at my prep school ......... this is the technique I remember and it seemed to work extremely well ...... read all the passage, then read all the questions, then read the all passage again, then read question 1 and answer it referring back to the passage.
My DH said he just read the passage then answered the questions without ever looking back at the passage. He was amazed that any child might look at the passage more than once.
They don't do much comprehension at my daughter's state school - so the SATs reading papers probably come as a shock. And for the first three years of school they seemed to want children to guess at stuff which wasn't actually intended by the author and give answers which may or may not have been right. When a book doesn't have many words or much of a storyline you can't do much more than the "what might happen next" type questions or "why might she be sad?" etc etc. I do not remember "real" comprehension passages being like that, so maybe it comes as a shock in year 4 if you are doing comprehension which is not like this.
Is answering in full sentences also required? Some children don't like having to do that or can't. A good game to play is one where you ask questions and try and trick the other person into not answering in full sentences. e.g. your son asks you questions (any old thing e.g. how old are you?). You have to answer in full sentences e.g. I am one hundred years old. If you do not answer in full sentences you swap around and you start asking the questions. Some questions require very contrived answers to reply to in a full sentence so it's great practice without the slog of writing anything down. You can play it in the car, anywhere, with other siblings etc etc.
Don't be demoralised. It can't truly be his "comprehension" that is poor - otherwise he would not understand anything he read or heard - and that's not the case is it? It's his technique for this kind of exercise that is currently poor, and you are well placed to work out which aspect it is of his technique that needs to improve.