Comprehension Strategies
Kids of the same age will hear the same sermon or read the same passage of scripture, but their level of understanding can be vastly different. There are a lot of factors that contribute to this diversity of comprehension. Some kids have a large vocabulary and some kids a smaller one. Some kids use a lot of energy decoding thee words on the page, so there is very little left when it comes to putting together meaning from what they have read. Some kids have a lot of background knowledge about what they are reading, they could tell you when it is happening in biblical history and what theological significance of that is. Others can't. If our ministry strategies assume the former then we may be doing a number of children we minister to a disservice.
The good news is that explicitly teaching comprehension strategies pays big dividends. According to educational research uncovering the thinking behind what comes naturally to some children through explicit mini lessons has been shown to reap disproportionate long term benefits. Its as though rather than being skills that need to be drilled incessantly, comprehension skills are more like tricks, that once their mechanic is uncovered and practiced a few times, they become part of the readers' tool kit.
I've written up a list of strategies you could incorporate around the sermon and in bible studies. Take a look!
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