This week Prairieview speech/language students tried some different strategies for listening, reading, and comprehending. Third graders were introduced to visualization thru "picture stories." They listened to a short narrative read aloud to them and then helped Mrs. DeYoung to construct illustrations of the story. Students had to focus on descriptive details such as spatial words and size concepts to form accurate pictures and be able to draw conclusions. (This required some of the children to learn new vocabulary concepts.) Students were able to summarize the narrative, make predictions, and answer comprehension questions using this strategy. Next week they will continue to use the "picture story" strategy more independently.
Fourth and fifth grade students are reviewing ways to infer meaning of unfamiliar words while reading. They used context clues to understand vocabulary with multiple definitions and identified root words, prefixes, and suffixes to decifer unknown words. Students were also able to use their background knowledge of the topic to infer meaning. While Mrs. DeYoung focused on vocabulary comprehension, the children also were given practice in writing definitions in their own words. For future sessions, students will be encoouraged to explain meanings and to use new words appropriately.
