Reading Comprehension Play
1. Bon Appetit - A fun word game that helps boost reading comprehension as well as grammar skills. Help to brew a witches' potion by following the riddles in the recipe. [New as of 3/11/11]
2. Brainchild Reading Passage - [Designed for grade 4] Read and answer 12 questions. Review answers for explanations on any incorrect choices.
3. Context Clues - Interactive quizzes on how to use context clues to find the meanings of words.
4. Context Clues (2) - Select the correct meaning of the word from the context clues provided.
5. Dig It! - Use context clues to help make predictions.
6. Elements of a Story - Assist the Movie Club with the elements of the story. Click on the tutorial and follow along and answer the questions. [New as of 3/14/11]
7. Get the Idea - Tutorial and exercise on finding the main idea using the clues within the paragraph.
8. Literal Understanding - Interactive quizzes with factual information on planets. Read the paragraph then answer the questions on the right.
9. Passages for Reading Comprehension - Select a passage and choose the words that best fit the context of the passage. Press the 'Check My Answers!' button when you are done to see how you did! [New as of 3/11/11]
10. Reading Activity - Read the story about dolphins and answer the questions.
11. Reading Comprehension Quiz - Read the paragraph and answer the questions. Self Checking. [New as of 3/10/11]
12. Reading Comprehension stories - Choose from the two stories to practice reading paragraphs and answering questions.
13. Reading Comprehension Test - [2003 Texas released test] grade 4 reading level
14. Reading Comprehension Test - [2004 Texas released test] grade 4 reading level
15. Reading Comprehension Test - [2003 Texas released test] grade 5 reading level
16. Reading Comprehension Test - [2004 Texas released test] grade 5 reading level
17. Reading Comprehension Test - [2007 Virginia Department of Education released test] grade 4 reading level [New as of 3/11/11]
18. Reading Comprehension Test - [2008 Virginia Department of Education released test] grade 4 reading level [New as of 3/11/11]
19. Reading Exercises - 5 different stories with various exercises: read the story and answer questions, fill in and sequencing.
20. Reading Text and Quiz - Read the article about elephants and answer the questions.
21. Word Meaning - Select the correct meaning of the word from the context clues.
Playing throughout the school day becomes essential, not only for creative purposes, but also for the developmental aspects of young children. I am torn with this, because developmentally, I know my students need to play, but those above me suggest, they need more structured educational, teaching time. With a heavily loaded curriculum it is very difficult to fit in play. The best alternative: incorporate play into the instructional time. “Play can be useful because, as psychologist Jean Piaget suggested, it strengthens various mental skills in on rot more of three ways (practice play, symbolic play, and game play)” (Root-Berenstein 248-249).
Though these three types of play are extremely important, I find it hard when students should be doing literacy centers (playing games and doing activities that are already created), and they begin to use symbolic play, by building forts and tents out of the cards. They aren’t getting the practice that they need, but they are being playfully creative, which is age appropriate. I have found that children need specific times in which they can play, even though sometimes they “can’t.” I try to have a few specific times of the day where students are given the freedom to play and be creative. By trying to find more ways to play during literacy has been difficult. “Transforming concepts from one form into another can yield discoveries in any field” (Root-Berenstein, 286). We want our students to feel as though they have the opportunity, drive, and ability, to create different things, things that could possibly take them places when they get older. My students work in groups today to create an assembly line at the “Hersey” factory in Hersey, Pennsilvania. This might not be a formal “play time,” but it allowed the students to be creative and use their imagination to pretend they were working in a factory. The purpose was to simulate what it was like to be a factory worker long ago.
“When we become aware of the transformations our ideas undergo, we are well on the road to awareness of creative imagining as a process we can play with and control” (Root-Berenstein, 293). In order for students to understand literacy, play must be involved. Hands on experiences, in helping students fully grasp the fundamental concepts. For example, learning new words. With each new word part that my students are presented with, the suffix/prefix is added to our word wall. We begin to create words based on the suffix/prefix they have. This word play helps them to realize that different parts can be in many different words. As we learn each new word, we’ve been looking at simple word searches to try to pull out the words in them.
“Different transformations of an idea or a set of data will have different characteristics and uses. The more unexpected the transformation, the greater the likelihood that a surprising insight will result” (Root-Berenstein, 285). Students don’t often realize that “play” is a part of their daily schedule. It is my job to get them to have a balance of learning styles. Play is crucial at this stage in their lives, so that they can physically understand the concepts, even if transforming them doesn’t make sense yet. “Play returns us to the presymbolic drives of gut feelings, emotions, intuition, and fun from which creative insights stem, thereby making us inventors” (Root-Berenstein, 267).
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