Strategies to build your child’s reading comprehension skills
In a previous post, I wrote about reading fluency and how to support your child’s growth in this area.
With the start of a new school year upon us, let’s talk about reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what you read. Comprehension goes beyond being able to answer basic questions such as who is the main character in a story or where the story took place. In classrooms, this is often referred to as the “5 W’s” (who, what, where, when, why) along with the “H” for how.
Many students are able to answer these “concrete” based questions but struggle with answering questions that require them to dig deeper into the text. We want our students to be able to analyze and interact with the text. Just as there are strategies for increasing your child’s reading fluency, there are many ways to increase your child’s reading comprehension. Here are several that you can start using right away.
Read aloud often
Have your child read aloud as often as possible. Though this was also listed as a strategy for building reading fluency, it also helps to build reading comprehension. Through reading aloud, the reader is able to build better visuals connected to what they are reading. Also, hearing what you are reading helps you to better remember it.
Ask questions while reading
Pause your children often when reading with them (whether they are reading aloud or you are) to ask questions about what was just read. While asking those W/H questions is important, be sure to ask them questions that require them to dig deeper and provide more information. Ask questions such as how a text made them feel, why they thought a character said or did something in the text, or to summarize what was just read.
Modeling this process out loud yourself is very helpful, especially for struggling readers. For example, after reading a paragraph, pause and say, “As I read this paragraph, one question I have is why…” If your child just agrees with your thoughts or ideas, encourage them to either provide different explanations or to create a question of their own.
Make connections
Make connections often while reading. This one is so important for increasing reading comprehension. Ask your student often and repeatedly to try and connect to what they have just read. You can do this as often as once or twice per chapter or segment of text.
Be sure your child understands that connections can be made to events in their own lives, lives of their families or friends, other books that they’ve read, movies or shows they’ve seen, real world events, or even songs that they’ve heard.
Often students struggle with connections because they think they must connect to their own personal experiences. Again, be sure to model this process with your child because it is one of the most difficult things for them to do, especially as they get older.
We want our students to be able to analyze and interact with the text.
Reading and visualization
Help your child visualize what they are reading. As you read through text together, have your child explain in their own words what they see in their mind as they read. It is most helpful if you model this for your child by explaining what you see in your mind while reading. Say out loud to your child, “When I read this passage, in my mind I could see…”
For younger children, you could also ask them to draw a detailed picture of what they visualize after reading a section or chapter. Ask them to explain their picture to you after they have completed it. This will help you see how much they understood and will also highlight any misconceptions they might have had.
The importance of background knowledge
Build your child’s background knowledge. Try to find videos, movies, TEDTalks, and any life experiences. Background knowledge will take what your child is reading to the next level.
For example, if your child is reading a book in class that takes place in a different country (or even city or state), help your child find information about that area so they can better understand the cultural differences they might read about (or even just better visualize the setting). If they are learning about a certain era of history in their social studies class, find videos that can support their understanding of that time period.
Help your child increase their vocabulary by asking them what they think an unknown word means, coming up with a synonym or antonym to a word, or creating their own sentence using the word in the correct context. Students are often told they need to use context clues to determine an unfamiliar word’s meaning, but if they don’t know what any of the words in the sentence mean, then this strategy will not work for them.
By exposing your child to as many sources as possible, they will increase their background knowledge which in turn will help them better comprehend whatever they read.
Concluding comments on reading comprehension
Above all, help your students understand that reading is always an active process. They should not just be looking at words across a page but should be questioning and connecting to them as well. After all, that is the magic and power of the written word: its ability to help us both challenge the world around us and find our place in it.
For more reading, check out our article on signs your child needs a reading tutor or information about Orton-Gillingham tutoring.
About the author:
Kimberly Frey studied exceptional education and is licensed by the Illinois State Board of Education as a learning behavior specialist. She has been teaching for almost 20 years and currently works as a diverse learners resource teacher and a math extended impact teacher for Chicago Public Schools.
