2. What the problem looks like:
A child's perspective: What this feels like to me….
Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I don’t like reading!" or "This is boring!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how comprehension difficulties in particular affect their reading:
It takes me so long to read something. It's hard to follow along with everything going on.
I didn't really get what that text was about
Why did that character do that? I just don't understand
I'm not sure what the most important parts of the book were
I couldn't really create an image in my head of what was going on

3. A parent's perspective: What I see at home…
Some clues for parents that a child may have problems with comprehension:
He/she's not able to summarize a passage or a book
He/she might be able to tell you what happened in a story, but can't explain why events went the way they did
He/she struggles to explain what a character's thoughts or feelings might have been
He/she is unable link events in a book to similar events from another book or from real life

4. A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom
He/she seems to focus on the "wrong" aspect of a passage; for example, concentrates more on the details resulting in the main ideas being lost
He/she can tell the outcome of a story, but cannot explain why events turned out the way they did
He/she struggles to retrieve information from a text in order to answer questions relating to the text
He/she does not infer deeper meanings behind what is presented in a text to think about what might happen next or why characters took the action they did
He/she seems to have a weak vocabulary
He/she struggles to form the sequence of events in a story
He/she struggles to comment on authors choice of language or structure in a text

5. Department for children, schools and families:
Research suggests that although many children acquire vocabulary naturally through activities at school, this cannot be left to chance in the case of children with low vocabularies. Reading to children and getting children to read themselves are the basics of vocabulary growth, together with engaging children in rich oral language and encouraging reading and talk at home.

6. The National Reading Panel’s review identified five basic approaches to vocabulary instruction which should be used together:
• Explicit instruction (particularly of difficult words and words that are not part of pupils’ everyday experience), • Indirect instruction (i.e. exposure to a wide range of reading materials), • Multimedia methods (going beyond the text to include other medias such as visual stimulus, the use of the computer or sign language), • Capacity methods (focusing on making reading an automatic activity), and association methods (encouraging learners to draw connections between what they do know and unfamiliar words).

7. Building and Improving Vocabulary

8. How do we learn words?
Most children learn words from everyday conversation and from reading books regularly
Usually a child of 6-8 years comes across 6-7 new words a day, whereas a child of 8-12 years learns 12 new words a day
Although a child may come across a new word, they usually rely on hearing words times before it becomes part of their ‘vocabulary’

9. Why is building our vocabulary so important?
Come across new words regularly and learn their meaning
Reading comprehension and improving understanding
Use new words in their writing (as well as helping their spelling to improve!)

10. How to improve vocabulary
Think of other words which mean the same thing (synonyms).
Can you think of a word which means the same as _________?
Can you think of another word the author could have used here?
What does this word mean here? Does it always mean this?

11. Looking at synonyms

13. Find synonyms for the following words:
hypnotic breath-taking entranced
include luxurious art objects
sparkling mixture
lively new

15. Change words to create an effect
Change the word in red to allow the reader to infer that the character is being nasty/ friendly:
“Would you like to play over here?” said Henry.
Change the word in red to allow the reader to infer that the character is elderly/ young:
Steven walked across the road.

16. Tips for learning new words:
Read, read, and read: Use a combination of attempting to derive meaning from the context of the sentence as well as from looking up the definition in a dictionary.
Don’t be afraid to give a ‘child-friendly’ definition yourself if you think the dictionary definition will take too much time.
Keep a dictionary or thesaurus on hand!
If children are reading independently, give them a journal and encourage them to keep a note of any words they don’t know the meaning of or like the sound of.
Draw a picture to memorise the meaning of new words you come across – these can be as funny as you like!

17. Keep a list of spelling words on the fridge
Keep a list of spelling words on the fridge. Try to use them in everyday conversation. Who can use these words the most in a week?
Learn a word a day. Using a word-a-day calendar -- or developing your own list of words to learn -- is a great technique many people use to learn new words.
Play hot potato – give a child a word, you must take it in turns to think of an alternative: i.e. said * exclaimed * shouted
Have fun with rhyming words! Is this a real word or a made up word?

18. Interactive websites

20. http://www. literacytrust. org
_-_weekly_reading_comprehension.pdf