Comprehension: The Key to Successful Reading

(Grades K-3) / Flex Course

PDI Course Number: 70T02 / UCSD Course Number: EDUC41474

Course Description

Do you have students in K-3 who read all the words correctly and then have no idea what they just read? This online course focuses on improving students’ comprehension skills. The course begins by offering four different options for assessing comprehension, including retelling, cloze procedure, maze procedure, and miscue analysis. Then, teachers are introduced to a wealth of strategies that can improve and support a reader’s comprehension. Strategies presented include strengthening pre-reading background knowledge, using anticipation guides to understand students’ current level of understanding of a topic, DRTA to help guide students through an entire reading, and helping students understand question levels. Students will also be taught about text structure to help them better approach and comprehend the type of text they are engaged with. Additionally guided reading and reciprocal teaching techniques will be explored. Teachers will also learn how to effectively formulate comprehension questions across a variety of different levels. Finally, teachers will understand how vocabulary affects comprehension. Of course, suggestions for using literature to engage and inspire young readers will be shared. By the end of the course, teachers will have gained many strategies to support student comprehension. 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.

"Content provided valuable information on current practices and strategies utilized for reading comprehension in the lower elementary grades. It could be used immediately in the classroom. The format was easy to follow and understand from beginning to end." - Carolyn Leslie