Entry #6: Using CROWD Questions to Target Comprehension Development

 Going through this week's required readings, something that caught my attention most was in the article titled, "Building Preschool Children's Language and Literacy One Storybook at a Time" from Katherine Beauchat, Katrin Blamey, and Sharon Walpole. When reading about the Comprehension Development section of the article, Beuchat et al speak about questions that ask a wide-range of thinking tasks from students. 

Firstly, to clarify, Comprehension Development belongs to Innovation Configuration (IC), a tool for teachers to implement in order to help with student understanding as part of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). To be honest, when first reading through the differences between CBAM and IC and how they related to each other, I was a little confused. Upon further reading, I was able to understand the importance of IC and how I can implement each section to improve my own teaching. More specifically, the Comprehension Development section and the use of CROWD. 

Beuchat states that "Teachers target comprehension when they ask children questions before, during, and after reading" (Beuchat et al., 2009, p.28). She goes on to mention that these questions should include a range of thinking tasks. CROWD stands for the different questions that should be used in tandem with Storybook Reading in order to achieve better success with student understanding. "C" is for completion questions, "R" is for recall questions, "O" stands for open-ended questions, "W" for wh-prompts (Who, What, When, Where, etc.), and "D" stands for distancing questions. 

When going through these questions, I recognized many of these types of questions and how I actually implement many in my own teaching already. I work with the toddler group currently, so we do a lot of reading to our kids through Storybook Reading. I had no idea about CROWD before reading this article, but I know I'm already implementing many of these questions into our day. Before we read our story, we usually ask what our theme for the week is, and ask what the kids think the book will be about based on the cover. During the reading we may ask more open-ended questions in relation to what's going on in the story, and after reading we may ask simple one-word answers to what we just read. Sometimes it's not always easy with kids this age, and they may not fully understanding depending on their development level, but it's something I think we always strive to do, in a way to prepare them for preschool.

I think it's so important to instill these types of routines early on, so when they get a bit older, it's something students are already expecting and start understanding more about how to answer these questions. By modeling this type of reading comprehension, children begin to make their own connections and start asking their own questions later in their early education journey. I do think I could work on incorporating every type of question into my current teaching, and recognize when each one is appropriate. This brings me to a quote found in Tompkins, Chapter 4: "As they listen, children learn new vocabulary and acquire more sophisticated sentence structures" (Thompkins, 2017, p. 111). Although Tompkins is referring to interactive read-alouds, I think the same sentiment goes for Storybook Reading. By consistently reading to students, and asking these comprehension questions every day, students are more likely to grow their vocabulary and oral language skills. 

References:

Beauchat, K. A., Blamey, K. L., & Walpole, S. (2009). Building Preschool Children's Language and Literacy One Storybook at a Time. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 26–39.