Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program
Third Edition
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This paper has been written at the request of all the many teachers, tutors and parents inquiring as to how comprehension in reading and the other language arts is taught and learned in the Bannatyne Program. Of course this will also involve a discussion of the more fundamental question: What is the true nature of comprehension?
Traditional Teaching Approaches To Comprehension
Traditionally, reading comprehension lessons are presented to students in the form of a close questioning of students as to what they remember about the content, the topics, the themes and the words of the story soon after that story (or prose passage) has been read. This approach has often been less than successful because:
But, before we discuss the actual lessons of the Bannatyne Program in which we will actively teach comprehension to students, we need to investigate the true nature of comprehension, meaning and understanding in a verbal context.
If we (or a student) read a sentence in English, we first decode the printed symbols on the page into sounds (called phonemes). The second thing we do is group these phonemes into sound-words and we do this trick in the auditory-vocal areas of the brain. This is a fact because the English language is a phonetic (sound to symbol) language. Thus we hear in our brains the words we read. After all a book is only the "canned" and polished speech of the author! The third thing we do is to interpret the heard words individually as well as in sentences in terms of their meanings, which are ideas, concepts and images. Fourthly, we intuitively search our minds for all the relevant wider linked knowledge so as to further understand these incoming ideas, concepts and images in a broader context of related meanings.
These four steps mean that verbal comprehension only occurs in terms of the natural auditory-vocal language we hear and speak inside our brains, and NOT the printed words. From this point in our discussion I will call this natural auditory-vocal language our inner language. For example, if I visually read the word table in a book, the graphemes trigger in my mind (in a phonetic language) the auditory-vocal word /table/, which in turn brings forward in my mind an inner collective image of tables--which is the literal meaning of the word. If I am a carpenter who makes tables, my inner collective image of tables may not only include many varieties (kitchen, coffee, dining, side, and work tables) but also how they are constructed. It may include a variety of woods, stains, designs, and hardware, not to mention the tools and brushes used to make them. To truly understand this inner collective image of tables I may call on my various experiences with the uses of tables as surfaces on which I may work, eat, draw, read, prepare or repair things.
Thus, after any given successful decoding/reading of some sentences, the degree of actual comprehension, meaning and understanding of words, sentences, prose, etc., depends on the richness and power of a student's inner language system as well as the quality and range of the ideas, concepts, images and insights that particular student can bring to them. All these aspects of comprehension can be taught, and are taught very thoroughly in the Bannatyne Program.
Enriching the Inner Language System in Many Ways
Inner language does not mean a silent or passive language system. On the contrary, the richness of a student's inner language depends almost entirely on the active listening and speaking in which he or she has participated at home, at school and in the neighborhood. If a student has been brought up in highly stimulating natural language surroundings, then he or she will usually have little trouble comprehending in school. Note that even the learning disability or intellectually handicapped student who is somewhat innately verbally competent and who has had a beneficially verbal home will fare better in school than his handicapped peers who do not have those assets. Many research studies have proved early conversational verbal enrichment in a child's life not only facilitates success in school but also activates and stimulates crucial areas of his or her brain. It is never too late to begin this conversational verbal stimulation, and where better than in school.
Thus the conversational stimulation, growth and enrichment of students' inner language and its meaningful associations becomes crucial in the development of comprehension and understanding, especially when reading, writing, spelling or pursuing other language arts activities. The Bannatyne Program provides comprehensive verbal enrichment.
How then, can we best teach inner language comprehension?
The key solution to this question is summed up in this answer:
The only way to learn our rich language is to use our language actively with the full involvement of voice and ears. If someone told you, you had to learn to read, write, play and comprehend music in a nearly silent classroom, you would chuckle at the contradiction. Well, our natural language is the spoken and heard one; the one we converse with on the telephone, or at the dinner table, or the one we hear on radio and TV. But the unstructured and often limited conversations in these home situations, while it is of great value, is an insufficient source of language stimulation for real academic verbal success. That task is left to our schools to accomplish--from kindergarten to university.
Every lesson activity in the Bannatyne Program teaches enriched verbal comprehension, so much so that pre and post testing results in research studies involving the Bannatyne Program frequently show comprehension to have the highest grade (standard) achievement gain. One group of 15 court-referred delinquent SLD teenagers improved in Reading Comprehension 2.8 grade achievement levels in one school year. (See TESTIMONIALS and STUDIES)
Key Words (Activity 1) Vocabulary Building Through Conversations
In the Key Words Activity most of the common words in our language and their various meanings are discussed conversationally and at length by teacher and students. The teacher is required to stimulate the use of the words in full sentences by students (with correct syntax) as everyone engages in a lively conversation which is discretely directed by the teacher. Note that the various meanings of each word must all be discussed in this manner.
A glance at several Key Word Activity pages in both Ships and Planets Workbooks will quickly illustrate the very wide scope of the enriching vocabulary taught in the Bannatyne Program. Of course these Key Words are also coded and decoded in a variety of additional lessons on each Key Words page.
In the Jewels Series Workbooks too, all students must discuss conversationally every word in every (vocabulary) picture and every new word printed on any page.
Story Words (Activities 2 & 5) Involve Students and Teacher in More Vocabulary Building Through Conversation
In the Story Words Activities almost all the other common words in our language (and many uncommon ones as well) are discussed conversationally in full sentences in a guided conversation among the individual students and teacher. As well as enriching students' inner language and general verbal comprehension in reading, the Story Words are (obviously) those to be used in the Story Activity and this will enhance the full comprehension of that Story when it is eventually read by students.
All the above sections of this Chapter explain what I mean by the phrase, "teaching comprehension," especially in the preparation for prose stories--which lies to a large extent in the prior preparation of the words in a given story through students' conversations. These in turn develop and enrich that essential inner comprehension language in the minds and brains of each student.
Cartoon, Be-An-Artist and Dot Game Activities
The Cartoon, Be-An-Artist and Dot Game Activities all help develop and enrich inner language and full comprehension power. Be-An-Artist associates recalled meanings more firmly with vocabulary words. The Cartoon brings out humorous meanings from the words, sentences and discussions.
Speed Reading (Activity 7 and some other pages) Enhances Fast, Fluent Reading Skills
One very important element of reading comprehension in a phonetic language like English lies in the training of decoding (reading) skills to a level where the decoding of printed words into auditory-vocal words is a fast, fluent, automatic memory process. Once students (a) can "forget" they are decoding (as you do when you are reading an interesting novel), and (b) once they already know the meanings of the words, their whole concentration can be focused on a "relaxed" comprehending of the meaningful content of the passage being read. Speed Reading is easily trained, and it is thoroughly and enjoyably trained throughout the Bannatyne Program
But exactly how does decoding-in-reading become a fluent, automatic skill for students?
In this teaching of fluent decoding, the Bannatyne Program is unique. Once the meanings and all the basic phonetic and phonic elements in a given set of words have been thoroughly taught (which we have already done in the previous Activities), we have students read those words in the Speed Reading Activity at faster and faster rates against the stopwatch. Not infrequently students will develop reading speeds of between 100 and 150 words per minute--and they love it. This decoding fluency speed sets the stage for a full understanding of the next immediate Activity which is the Story itself.
Also note that students have already participated in speed reading the completed pages in both the Key Words and Story Words Activities.
As can be seen from the forgoing information, all the preparation for understanding the meaningful content of the Story has already been done before students reach the Story Activity. In other words, the comprehension of the Story has been taught by the teacher in active lessons before the Story itself is begun. This is the opposite process to the traditional one in which the story is read first, then relevant questions are asked to test recall memory--which is a testing procedure, not a teaching one.
However, much more comprehension teaching is still to come in the Bannatyne Program. After the teacher has read the Story once through, and discussed conversationally its meaning and plot (see below) with students, he or she also teaches the Special Lessons on grammar, syntax and other important language features that are involved in the Story. Thus, as well as all the word meaning preparation and the decoding fluency preparation, we have a full continuous training in grammar, syntax and language arts skills, all of which is teaching students an even more enriching comprehension. After all, the more that students learn about how our language works (in terms of its structure, etc.,) and make that process fluently automatic, the more easily will they comprehend prose meanings.
After the Special Lessons on syntax, grammar and other language skills have been taught, the teacher hears the students read, and then speed read, the Story. During this reading activity the teacher continues to teach comprehension through explanations and conversational help as necessary.
Topic, Theme and Plot Analysis (of the Story) by Sentences and Paragraphs Enriches Comprehension
Another comprehension feature of the Story Activity is the time devoted to an analysis of the themes, topics and plots in the Stories. This entails a full analysis, sometimes sentence by sentence, and paragraph by paragraph, of the what, where, how, why, and when aspects of the detailed Story structure and content. How to do this analysis of the Stories is laid out in detail in the Teacher’s Guides. This comprehensive internal analysis of the Stories means that students are trained in yet another aspect of enriched prose comprehension by the teacher in a series of structured lessons.
Teaching Comprehension of Story in Terms of Logical Inference, Deduction and Induction
Surprisingly we still have not finished with the full training of comprehension in the Bannatyne Program. Once students have completed the Story reading (and Story speed reading) the teacher then asks (in interactive conversation) highly specific questions about the themes, content, etc. However these questions are mostly not the usual kind of "word" and "fact" rote-memory testing which is frequently done in other programs under the guise of "comprehension." But be assured that even recall memory for Story content is taught in the Bannatyne Program.
In the Bannatyne Program most of these Comprehension Questions are designed to elicit conversational mini-lessons which teach students about logical inference, deduction and induction within language and reading usage. These technical terms are not used with students but you will be teaching them inference, deduction and induction implicitly.
Inference means: To reach (infer) a separate conclusion from given facts through reasoning.
For example: "I inferred he was a physician from his extensive knowledge of medicine."
Sample inference question (printed in the Teacher Guide) from the "Odd Ox Rocks" story: "Can you think what might have caused Dot's wand to work?"
Sample answer (also printed in the Teacher Guide) for discussion: "The wand could have had batteries in it, and so given Odd Ox a mild electric shock." Discuss the many uses of batteries.
Deduction means: To reach (deduce) a separate factual conclusion from a broader context or class of information.
For example: "I deduced this is lava rock because that big volcano is nearby."
Sample deduction question (printed in the Teacher Guide) from the "Odd Ox Rocks" story: "Oxen are sometimes called beasts of burden. Why? And can you name some other beasts of burden?"
Sample answer (also printed in the Teacher Guide) for discussion: "They carry or pull heavy loads for us humans. Other beasts of burden would be horses, mules, donkeys, camels, llamas and reindeer." Discuss where in the world, and by which peoples, these animals are used.
Induction means: To discover a general idea, law or principle from a set of specific facts.
For example: "When I saw the dark clouds forming in the sky, and the wind was starting to blow harder, and I felt colder, I knew (induced from these facts) that a big storm was coming."
Sample induction question (printed in the Teacher Guide) from the "Odd Ox Rocks" story: "In the story there is a tent, an ox and a cot. So, in what kind of place or locality do you think this story took place?"
Sample answer (also printed in the Teacher Guide) for discussion: "Somewhere in the country; certainly not a city or town." Discuss the differences between towns and rural areas.
Comprehension in the Quiz, Activity Nine
Activity 9 is the Quiz, which, by means of a reading activity, enables students to demonstrate their comprehension through the recall of specific answers to questions. The Quiz also allows students to exercise visual discrimination of the graphemes of similar looking words. This visual discrimination is also an aid to comprehension through their learning not to confuse similar looking words.
Comprehension in the Unscramble Game, Activity Eleven
In this Unscramble Game Activity students learn that comprehension, and understanding the meaning of a sentence, depends on its syntax. In this Activity the words in a sentence (from the Story theme) are scrambled in random order, and the students are taught how to search for all the cues and meaningful clues which will enable them to write it in the correct syntactical order.
Comprehension in the Crossword Puzzle, Activity Thirteen
In this Activity the comprehension process is reversed because the students have to search their minds for a specific word when they know only its meaning! Of course they are given familiar clues as to what this meaning is. Often the given meaning is only a picture image to which they have to recall, through inner association, the required word. This is true even though the teacher has previously discussed all the meanings of the picture and word.
Comprehension in the Name It Game, Activity Fourteen
This is also an Activity which teaches comprehension by moving in reverse from the given illustrated meaning to recalling "out of the blue" the specific word associated with that meaning.
Comprehension in Creative Writing, Activity Fifteen--Workbooks 12 and 13
By finishing, in their own words, the beginnings of (provided) stories which are unfinished, students have to apply all the numerous comprehension skills they have learned throughout the Bannatyne Program.
In three studies (using a standardized test) of SLD (Specific Learning Disability) students in different age ranges the following results were obtained for pre and post testing of student PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION which is the most similar to actual reading:
Students under 10 years improved 2.4 grade achievement levels in one school year.
Students aged 10 to 13 years improved 1.9 grade achievement levels in one school year.
Students aged 14 to 18 years improved 2.8 grade achievement levels in one school year.
Remember that regular students in regular classrooms with regular reading programs improve only ONE grade level of achievement per year.
IN CONCLUSION
No other educational program in our elementary schools teaches enriched comprehension in reading, writing and language anywhere nearly as comprehensively as the Bannatyne Program.
The Bannatyne Reading Program is a comprehensive, integrated reading program, writing program, spelling program, language program, and comprehension training program. The Bannatyne Reading Program is unlike any other reading programs currently available. This means you will find many features which are only in the Bannatyne Reading Program. In some Commonwealth countries the program may be referred to as: Bannatyne Programme, or Bannatyne Reading Programme.
Bannatyne Reading, Writing, Spelling and Language Program -- Copyright © 2003 Alexander Bannatyne, PhD
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