Comprehension - Yr 4

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jessmum
Posts: 50
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:19 am

Comprehension - Yr 4

Post by jessmum »

At my DDs request, we have started some very light "coaching" for 11+ work. She has just started Yr 4, so I havent even begun with practise papers or anything like that - its mainly a 10 word Vocab list, some "classics" to read at bedtime and some reading aloud plus word games.

Tonight we were both looking at the Bond "How to do 11+ English" book and one of the first subjects was Comprehension - a short passage from Tom Sawyer. I asked my DD if she was familiar with a comprehension test and she said no. She asked to try it - and enjoyed it, even if the text was quite tough for an 8 year old, she didnt do at all bad for a first attempt. I am surprised that she hasnt come accross a comprehension test before though (albeit with simpler text). What sort of age or year group do schools start teaching this? Trying to think back to my school days (sometime ago :lol: ) Im sure I did it at Juniors.

Her Primary seems much hotter on maths than English (she regards Math as her "worst" subject but was marked at a level 4 for some work last week) and they do teach maths at quite a high level however Literacy / English seems to be rather lacking. Should I expect her to be doing at least some basic comprehension by now in school? Im not sure how the Yr4 work is structured, so if anyone can enlighten me, that would be great.

Thanks.
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

It's not called comprehension - here is the primary framework so you can see what she should be doing:

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primar ... ning/Year4
jessmum
Posts: 50
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:19 am

Post by jessmum »

Thanks for that - very useful and funnily enough she new all about the different "narrative" text types and bought home a story planner the other day, so it looks like the school is following the plan almost to the letter :wink: .

I guess I'll just do a bit of basic "comprehension" with her to bolster her skills a little. She enjoys stuff like that so it wont be a chore!
yoyo123
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Post by yoyo123 »

over the last decade or so Lwork has been 'structured ' to death!!

Much to the disgust of a friend who has been teaching for over 30 years, comprehension questions do not need to be answered in sentences, so don;t be too annoyed with your daughter if she answers "because......"to a question or just goves a single word
DAO hopeful
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:52 pm

Comprehension

Post by DAO hopeful »

Children actually do a comprehension test for the Key Stage One Literacy paper. The level two paper is simple paragraphs with questions afterwards some of which are multiple choice. All children do that paper. Then only those who get a 2A on that paper then sit the Level 3 paper which is an actual separate story and they have to then look through the story for the answers to the questions which of course is much harder because the answers are not in a few lines of text just above the question. So if your child is in Year 4 they were actually tested on their comprehension skills at the end of Year 2. Does your child get homework? We quite regularly get comprehension homework for my Year 4 child.
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