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Susan from Colorado asks about....
Helping an advanced 1st Grade Reader
"I have a first grader reading and
comprehending at a 4th grade level. Any
suggestions to keep her on her academic
path?"
What a joy it is to see a child so young doing so well! When I work with students like this, I have two main goals: teaching them to interact with what they've read in new ways through thinking, discussion, and writing. Since your daughter is so young, writing will be too hard, but leading her to think about what she's read in a variety of ways will develop "higher-level thinking skills." The second step is to use these thinking skills in a wide range of literature. Let's take at look at easy ways to implement each of these.When we speak of "higher levels thinking" in reference to reading, we're focusing on skills like inference, cause/effect, compare/contrast, cause/effect, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. One way to teach these is by asking the student specific types of questions during and after they've read, and modeling our thinking processes as we figure out the answers. For example, while your daughter is reading, ask her questions like these…. Inference: "I wonder what will happen next?" And then you model, i.e. "I think ________ might do ______ because he was (use something that has happened so far in the story that would infer the character's next move.) What do you think? Why? (ask her for story-based 'evidence' for her prediction.)
Here are some examples of other "higher-level thinking" questions you can model... . Compare/Contrast: "How is her grandma like your grandma? I think she is because (model your answer using evidence from the story.) What do you think? Why?"
. Cause/Effect: "What do you think caused him to act like that? (Model) What do you think?"
. Analysis (i.e. analyzing a situation, a character, their actions): "Why do you think her dad decided to do that? (Model). What do you think? Why?"
. Synthesis (i.e. Putting yourself into the story; trying to think like the character): "How do you think she feels right now? (Model). What do you think? Why?"
. Evaluation: "Did you like this story? (Model) What do you think? Why?" "Do you think the author is a good writer? (Model). Why? Why not?"
My second goal for an advanced reader is to expose them to a wide range of reading materials. Young children enjoy using a "Genre Wheel" to do this. You can easily make one using a paper plate. Divide the plate into eight sections and write one of the following in each section: poetry, informational, science fiction/fantasy, mystery, biography, folklore, realistic fiction, and historical fiction. Then attach a paper "hand" with a fastener so the child can move the hand from one genre to the next. The goal is to go around the wheel, reading a book from each genre, thus getting to apply the higher-level thinking skills to many different types of books and writing styles. I hope you'll give either or both of these a try. Advanced readers like your daughter thrive on challenges and learning new things, and I hope these suggestions will help her continue to grow academically, as well as increase her love for reading 