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Monitoring Comprehension
It becomes clear that Allison misunderstood a part of the story, M & M and the Bad News Babies. The text reads, Then they made silly faces at each other. This silly faces looked just like two babies sucking on bottles. Under the text is an illustration of the two girls. Allison looks at the picture and thinks that the picture shows the two girls sticking out their tongues at each other.
Allison: They look like they're angry but that wouldn't make sense.
Tina: Think about what you should do when you come to a point in a story where something doesn't make sense.
Allison: (Rereads the text and finds the word silly.) Oh, I see. This word is "silly." They are making a silly fish face.
Tina: Does the story make sense now?
Allison: Yes, because the faces look like babies sucking a bottle.
Why it's important. Good readers monitor their comprehension while poor readers are less likely to do so (Simmons & Kameenui, 1998). Beginning readers are also less likely to use strategies to keep their reading on track (Paris & Oka, 1986).
How to support your tutee. Tutoring techniques for teaching and developing self-monitoring include stopping and summarizing, clarifying, making predictions, and asking questions. Questions should be open-ended and thoughtful. Teaching children to monitor their comprehension helps them:
- Be aware of what they do understand
- Identify what they do not understand
- Use appropriate "fix-up" strategies to resolve problems in comprehension
 Recognizing Story Structure
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