PR-6219UK Reading for Success - Book 4

Comprehension
Monitoring comprehension activities – 3
Sequencing events
Pupils’ abilities to sequence story events reflects their level of comprehension.
Materials
• set of written steps • marker
• strips of paper
1. Tell pupils that events in a story take place in a specific order or sequence. If these events are mixed
up, the story usually doesn’t make sense.
2. Write each of the events below from Goldilocks and the three bears on different strips of paper.
The bears leave their home.
Goldilocks goes into the bears’ house.
Goldilocks tastes the porridge.
Goldilocks tries sitting in the chairs.
She breaks Baby Bear’s chair.
Goldilocks falls asleep in baby bear’s bed.
The bears come home and finds Goldilocks sleeping.
3. Mix up the sentences and display them for pupils.
4. Draw pupils’ attention to the mixed-up sequence and how this confuses the message of the story.
5. Invite pupils to assist in placing the events in the proper sequence.
6. Finally, read the sentences in the correct order.
Identifying the main idea
Monitoring comprehension can be done by assessing pupil’s abilities to identify the main idea of a story.
Materials
• children’s story • large sheet of paper • marker
1. Read aloud a children’s story and ask pupils to listen carefully.
2. Have pupils name the things that happened in the story. (These do not need to be mentioned in
order.)
3. Write each of these statements on large paper.
4. When finished, review each statement and ask, ‘Is this what the entire story is about?’
5. Continue in this manner until pupils are able to identify the one sentence that summarises the main
idea of the story.
6. Finally, write the main idea sentence and three other sentences from the list that are important for
supporting the main idea.
Viewing sample
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