Comprehension Strategies for Middle and Upper Grades

(Grades 4-12) / Flex Course

PDI Course Number: 74T02 / UCSD Course Number: EDUC41476

Course Description

Are you concerned about students who read the assigned text or chapter yet have little or no comprehension of the content upon completion? Effective comprehension skills are critical for students in the upper grades, as they are exposed to more difficult content reading. This online course begins by providing teachers with an overview of why essential learning targets should be used in tandem with state standards. The course then provides teachers with excellent strategies designed to boost both comprehension and retention. Teachers will learn successful comprehension-building strategies such as DRTA, SQ3R, and close reading. Teachers will also learn tools and techniques to help students learn how to infer, draw conclusions, and summarize. Teachers will receive resources that can be used to teach students about the different text structures and patterns of organization, and how they can use that information to improve their comprehension. Guided comprehension strategies will also be explored. Teachers will also learn how to conduct quick assessments so that they can identify struggling readers more quickly, which gives them the opportunity to offer the necessary support(s) to help those students find success. Teachers will also be presented with ways in which students can perform their own self-assessment, so that they learn how to discover when their comprehension is off track. Finally, teachers will learn how to help build students’ vocabulary to better improve comprehension skills. By the end of this course, teachers will have gained many strategies so that they are better prepared to support their students as they continue to build with their comprehension schemas. This course is worth 3 ⅓ semester units/5 quarter units (50 hours of training) from University of California San Diego (UCSD) Division of Extended Studies. For detailed information on university credit, click here.

"The strategies in the course will be extremely helpful to me. I am excited to get started. My students will never be bored!" - Donna Snyder