Comprehension Questions to Ask Your Child

When you’re reading something with your child and trying to gauge their comprehension, it can be hard to know what to ask besides, “What happened?” It’s helpful to focus on what they can visualize. For example: 

1. “What did that look like?”

2. “How big was it?  

3. “What color did you imagine for it?”  

4. “Was it moving fast or slow?” 

5. “Did you imagine her looking happy or sad?  How did you know?” 

With older children and more advanced material, you can use their imagination to help build higher-order critical thinking skills.  

1. “From what you’re imagining, why do you think he did that?” 

2. “Based on your picture, do you think that would have been easy or hard for her to do?” 

3. “What do you think would have happened if she done this instead of that?” 

4. “From what you’re seeing, what do you think is going to happen next?” 

If your child consistently struggles to answer these sorts of questions, it might be a sign that he or she struggles to make mental imagery for the language they’re reading or hearing. If you so, Next Step Learning can help! Contact Michael at michael.nextsteplearning@gmail.com to schedule an assessment.

Teaching Students at St. John the Baptist Catholic School

Today we’re excited to share about our ongoing work with students at St. John the Baptist, a small Catholic school with a diverse student body located on South Bend’s west side. Check out the article in Today’s Catholic: https://todayscatholic.org/next-step-learning-invests-in-diocesan-students/

Partnering with Notre Dame students and South Bend Schools

In February of 2020, only weeks before stay-at-home orders came down, I attended a Notre Dame Honors Program event in Chicago, where I had the chance to meet a number of current Honors Program students.  I was blown away not only by their intelligence, but also their thoughtfulness, enthusiasm, and intellectual curiosity.  In the back of my mind, I had the fleeting thought that they would make great instructors. 

Around the same time, we were having conversations with the South Bend Schools about working with some of their students, but since we had a small core team, we weren’t sure how we would be able to accomplish that. 

Then COVID struck, and the South Bend Schools, like so many other school districts, transitioned to virtual instruction.  At the same time, most Notre Dame students had their volunteer opportunities curtailed because of the pandemic.  So early in the fall we reached out to Professor Chris Kolda, one of the directors of the Glynn Family Honors Program, and proposed training Honors students in the programs we use, with the goal of deploying them as virtual tutors with small groups of students in the South Bend schools.   

Because local school students were working virtually, with less chance for remediation, the South Bend schools were glad to partner with us, and after identifying about a dozen 3rd graders at Marshall Traditional School who were good candidates for our program, we began working with them while simultaneously training about 20 Notre Dame student volunteers.  In January, after spending more than 40 hours training, the Notre Dame volunteers began working as virtual tutors with the Marshall students.  

Our first Marshall students just finished the program, and we’re so proud of the progress they’ve made.  One student jumped between 1 and 3 grade levels in the reading metrics we use!  We’ve learned a lot over the course of the year, but this experience has taught us that the programs we use can be successfully implemented with virtual small group instruction and well-trained volunteer instructors.  We’re looking forward to deepening our partnership with the South Bend Community Schools in the coming years! 

This post was written by Michael Busk.