Playing Reading Comprehension Game

Improves Learning Skills

What if you could play a game and improve your child’s reading and listening comprehension at the same time? It also sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? But a game really can improve reading comprehension. As a learning disability specialist and board certified educational therapist I have probably worked with every type of reading problem, dyslexia, learning disability imaginable over my 37 years or teaching.

Reading Comprehension Problems

Many of my students had reading comprehension problems. They were very frustrated with their reading assignments. It was so hard for them when they had to read their social studies book and answer the questions at the end of the chapter. And they would often read the chapter multiple times and still not be able to answer the reading comprehension questions.
The problem was, no one had taught my students how to read for meaning. There is a specific way you read for reading comprehension. There is a certain way to listen for listening comprehension.

Solution to Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension Problems

As a result of teaching frustrated students of all ages, students that had given up on being able to understand what they had read, I decided to create a game that would teach them how to read for meaning and improve their reading comprehension. I knew from both working with my students and from research on learning that game playing was a great way to teach and reinforce skills. So I developed The Comprehension Zone: Rocket Rap to help them improve their skills.

What The Comprehension Zone: Rocket Rap™ did for our child:

“The Comprehension Zone: Rocket Rap had amazing results for one of our children.   We have been working with him on comprehension for years.  I often have him draw pictures of what I’m reading, we act things out and we read just a few phrases at a time and ask him questions whenever we are dealing with auditory learning.  He simply struggles in this area.  I was interested to see how he would do with Rocket Rap.

We began playing Rocket Rap often.  The improvement was rapid and dramatic!  By the end of the second game he was able to play successfully and currently it is easy enough for him to pick out facts while listening that he likes to try reading the card himself.

For the first time in his life our child will raise his hand when Mark asks questions during family worship and he will know the answer.  He will come up to us after church and spontaneously tell us something that he learned from the sermon.  He is so amazingly proud of himself and I’m amazingly thankful.

For our child who has always struggled with comprehension, for these results, I would happily pay double.  We’ve tried things similar to this in the past, we’ve been focused on this problem for years, but Rocket Rap has been the first activity that has been successful.”

Kimberly from RaisingOlives.com

Why Use Graphic Organizers to

Improve Writing?

Writing is the doing part of thinking. To create good thinkers we need to create good writers. One of the easiest ways to create good writers is to use graphic organizers. The use of fill-in-the-blank organizers helps to prevent the deer in the headlights look kids give you when staring at blank sheets of paper.

How Do Graphic Organizers Work?

Using graphic organizers like those found in Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills make writing easy because all a student needs to do  is to fill-in-the-blanks. These are specially designed for students with LD, dyslexia, reading or writing problems, or even gifted students that don’t like to write. My students used to bring me in their webbing forms and they couldn’t make heads or tails of them let alone use them to write a summary.

How Specially Designed Graphic Organizers Help

I remember one student in particular, Adam. He was a junior in high school. He spent a lot of time on his webbing form and was quite proud of the fact that he was able to do it. However, now that it was done he had to use it to write a paper. He was stymied, stuck in his tracks. He had no idea how to use it. He couldn’t tell what went with what. It was a mess. So, he handed me his webbing form, totally frustrated saying ‘help’ in a panic stricken voice because the paper was due the next day.

We spent time going over his webbing form, rewriting it in a linear fashion, showing connections so he could actually make sense of it. Then he was able to turn the new form into a fill-in-the-blank essay with the forms that are in Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills. That is why these graphic organizers are specially designed with the end use in mind. Even if you struggle with reading or writing skills, these graphic organizer forms make your life a lot easier.

Eric Jensen, author of Brain Based Learning, (1997) states that up to 87% of students do NOT learn from hearing alone. He goes on to state that we under-utlilize our visual system when learning. Using graphic organizers will increase student’s learning. Through visual and kinesthetic methods you’ll increase student performance and writing skills.

Do yourself a favor and start using these specially designed graphic organizers from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills today.

4 Activities to Improve Reading Skills

(Part 3 – Reading Comprehension)

As a parent you do have the power and ability to help your kids improve their reading skills. Now what I mean here is that you as a parent can help your child whether they have an identified learning disability, dyslexia, ADHD, or are gifted. There are 4 easy to implement activities that each take just a few minutes a day to improve reading.

1. Improve reading fluency in 5 minutes a day
2. Improve spelling and learn the 8 ways we put letters together to make words
3. Improve reading comprehension by playing a reading comprehension game
4. Improve writing skills using specially designed graphic organizers

Improve Reading Skills Activities

The first activity you can do to help your child improve reading skills  just takes 5 minutes a day - reading fluency. The second activity which is helping your children improve reading skills is by helping your children improve their spelling skills (about 12 minutes). The third activity is to play games with your children. The key here is to play games that are specifically designed to improve reading comprehension.

So, the third activity is playing a reading comprehension game. That’s right, game playing! Playing The Comprehension Zone, a reading comprehension game, teaches your kids how to read for the main idea and details or sequence what they read does the trick.

So many children struggle with reading comprehension, specifically finding the main idea of what they are reading or finding details that support the main idea or for sequential order. This can be daunting for some students, and not just those students with LD, dyslexia, or ADHD. You don’t have to have a learning disability to have difficulty with reading comprehension! Even gifted children sometimes struggle with reading comprehension.

Think about how difficult note-taking is when you don’t have a clue about the main idea of what you read. Typically you either stare at blank sheets of paper or you copy everything down, not knowing how to pick out the important information.

Play Reading Game to Improve Reading Skills

To be able to play a game and learn, practice, and reinforce the skill of pulling out the main idea and the details or putting information into sequential order at the same time is quite something. Additionally, this  reading game can be played for both reading comprehension or listening comprehension.

One of the beauties of playing games that improve reading skills, teach, and reinforce skills is that you are in a relaxed state when you are playing. Leaning is retained more efficiently when your body is not in a tense fight or flight state. Using games to learn skills is a way to learn in a non-threatening way.

Games even help and encourage learners to stay interested and they often work happier and longer without even realizing it.

Lee Su Kim states:
‘There is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning. This is a misconception. It is possible to learn a language as well as enjoy oneself at the same time. One of the best ways of doing this is through games.’

‘There are many advantages of using games to improve reading skills in the classroom:

1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class.
2. They are motivating and challenging.
3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning.
4. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading.
5. They encourage students to interact and communicate.
6. They create a meaningful context for language use.’
Creative Games for the Language Class ‘Forum’ Vol. 33 No 1, January – March 1995, Page 35

So, be sure to include games like The Comprehension Zone in your family’s activities. Your children will benefit from them. And, you will be spending quality time with your children and be helping them improve their reading comprehension skills at the same time.

Hi,

My question is what is the best sequence of teaching spelling patterns to dyslexic students?

Which spelling patterns in particular will be the most tough for the dyslexics to grasp & what knock-on effect can they have
on the learning of other patterns?

Which doors would be opened in reading & writing by knowing a certain pattern & which would be closed if the pattern was not known??

Kindly explain.

Thanks

Aisha.

Aisha,

There are only 8 spelling patterns in the English language. I teach spelling with the spelling books – Making Spelling Sense and Making Spelling Sense II. The spelling books are designed to work with dyslexics of all ages. In addition to teaching spelling patterns it addresses both auditory and visual processing at the same time.

I always start with the vowel/consonant spelling  pattern as it is the easiest one to learn and the most predominant spelling pattern in the English language. Then I go on to the vowel consonant silent e spelling pattern. The other spelling patterns follow.

As you gradually introduce the patterns with multiple lessons per spelling pattern, I don’t think there is really one pattern that would be considered the hardest one.

When you understand the structure of the language you can not only spell thousands of words, you can also decode thousands of words. Teaching spelling with this spelling program addresses both encoding (spelling – writing the word down) and decoding (sounding out words – reading) simultaneously.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET
http://bonnieterrylearning.com

I have had several questions regarding teaching handwriting or penmanship. There are several things you can do to help your child with sloppy handwriting. One of the most basic tips for teaching good handwriting or penmanship is to hold the pencil correctly.

I never imagined all the different ways kids could and do hold their pencils until I started seeing how they actually held them. I know when I was learning to write we actually had handwriting as a subject and my teacher put great emphasis on correctly holding the pencil.

Some kids have more trouble than others with handwriting. Doing any kind of fine motor work will actually help, since handwriting is a finemotor skill. But one of the critical things to promote good handwriting is to actually teach our kids how to hold their pen or pencil correctly. This will help them to write their letters with greater ease.

Watch the video for how to hold a pencil and to see what I consider one of the best aids in doing that.

Trust this is helpful,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

What can you do during the winter weather to help your kids improve their skills? This question is a frequent one for me. Parents are always interested in helping their kids, but it is sometimes hard to stay motivated, especially during the winter months.

The following activities work well with all kids, whether they have dyslexia, LD, ADHD, are falling through the cracks, or are gifted. I have done the activities successfully with all of them!

I have two favorite things to do to not only help my kids, but to stay motivated doing it too. The first thing is to have more frequent game nights, playing educational games – learning games like The Sentence Zone, The Comprehension Zone, or The Math Zone. When you play games with your kids, they build skills while having fun and get a lot of modeling from you too. At the same time you get to have quality family time, so it is a double win situation.

The other activity I like to do is to have an evening where I might turn the heat up a degree or two, and everyone gets dressed in ‘summer’ clothes, and we have a ‘picnic’ on the floor of the living room. Afterwards, we might tell stories to each other – what I call ‘add-on stories.’ In these stories one person starts off and then the next person adds on to the story. We keep going round and round and the story gets longer and longer. The only thing is, the kids have to pay attention and so do you, so what you add on makes sense to the story. This builds listening comprehension and memory as well as a really good time.

Hope this is helpful!

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Hi Bonnie,

I’d like to place an order for a product of yours, but I have not been able to locate any age or grade range for any of the items.  Can you tell me for whom the Comprehension Zone is appropriate?

Thanks,
Susan Taber

Hi there,

I recently found you on the web and just watching your vids, I’m VERY interested. To wit: I’m homeschooling my 16 year old nephew who has been diagnosed ADHD and dyslexic. With the phonics reading materials I’ve found on the net and at my local library, I can only find elementary school age relative materials. Money is tight or I’d simply order EVERYTHING you offer.

Any suggestions?

Thank you for your time, and more importantly your efforts to bring REAL EDUCATION to this nation!

Sincerely,

Rich Brewer

Hi Rich,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was out of town visiting my mom in Chicago.

I know what you mean about phonics reading materials being geared to elementary students. In fact, most are geared to kindergarten through 3rd grade. That is why I designed mine for all ages. I’ve always worked with students from kindergarten through adult ages. I figured that my younger students would feel like they were doing older kids stuff and my older students wouldn’t feel like they had to do little kid stuff.

You can always start small and gradually build what you are using. The first things I would get are the Making Spelling Sense, Making Spelling Sense II, and Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills. The Making Spelling Sense teaches all of the phonics, word attack skills, auditory processing, and word structure. The Five Minutes to Better Reading works on reading fluency and accuracy as well as visual and auditory processing skills.

The Spelling Pack saves you $4.00; the Five Minutes to Better Reading Set saves you $9.00

When you purchase all of them as the Reading Pack – which includes the Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills + the Comprehension Zone you get a $20.00 discount, plus you then have the comprehension piece in place. You also get a copy of my new e-book: Understanding LD and Dyslexia as a bonus with the Reading Pack.

Hope this is helpful.

I’m glad to see you signed up for the free teaching and homework tips from my blog. BTW: You can subscribe to the videos on You Tube too.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

http://bonnieterrylearning.com

Parents often ask me what they can do to help their kids improve their math skills. One of the most important things to do when trying to improve any skills, whether they are math skills, reading skills, or writing skills is to help your kids dissolve their fear of math, reading, or writing. This is especially important when your child has dyslexia, dyscalculia (a math disability) or ADHD. So, how do you help these kids that don’t like a particular subject, often because they aren’t very good at it?

One of the best ways I’ve found to help my LD, dyslexic, or ADHD kids learn to like learning is to play games. Game playing helps reduce the fears kids have. Games put your kids into a relaxed state when learning. Kids often make greater gains in their skills when they are in a relaxed state. Watch how this family plays the Math Zone. They have fun and learn at the same time.

Don’t forget to sign up for the FREE Teaching Tips to your right.

Hope this is helpful,

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

P.S.: Be sure to leave a comment below and ask your questions to the right.

Note Taking and learning study skills doesn’t have to be hard. I know you might be rolling your eyes at that statement, thinking:  “Right – Bonnie has got to be kidding!” But, I’m not kidding. I do know almost every time I used to ask my kids to take notes they dreaded it. In fact, they often just stared at blank sheets of paper, totally frozen, not knowing where to start.

What would it be like if your kids started taking notes from their books confidently and independently, without complaining! That’s what happened after my kids started using the graphic organizers from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills. They are specially designed with the end use in mind, so that even kids with dyslexia or a learning disability, or ADHD could use them with ease.

Watch this video of kids using the specially designed graphic organizers from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills. They decide which form to use with their assignment. You’ll see how easy it can be as well as learn other uses of the graphic organizer forms!

Hope this has been helpful. Please leave a comment below or a question to the right.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET