It would be great if all children moved seamlessly from the learning to read phase of life to the reading to learn phase of life, but the truth is that being able to accurately and fluently decode words on a page does not automatically result in comprehending the information being read.
I like to compare comprehension skills to the roots of a tree. Just as a tree needs many roots growing in different directions to support the trunk and keep it tethered to the soil, our kids need many skills to support their needs as a developing reader.
The good news is that you can help your child build reading comprehension skills long before he or she is able to read independently.
Tip #1: Engage your child in lots of conversations
Conversations are key to building reading comprehension skills. Discussions about the characters, settings, themes, and problems and solutions in stories, television shows, podcasts, movies, songs, and normal every day experiences will contribute to your child’s future reading comprehension. Similarly, every conversation your child participates in where he or she is learning about a new topic, is exposed to new vocabulary, gets to share an opinion, and has the opportunity to ask and answer questions helps build reading comprehension.
These conversations build vocabulary and language skills and help kids learn the common structure of narrative story telling and information sharing. Conversations also build a child’s prior knowledge which will make connecting future reading assignments to prior life experiences much easier.
Tip #2: Ask for Evidence (This is might be the most important tip I can share with you!)
Teach your child to look for and explicitly point out evidence. The ability to find evidence in a story, written or otherwise, that supports an answer to a question, helps someone form an opinion, or can help us predict a conclusion is an easy way to support comprehension building. Being able to find evidence is key to doing well on ELA standardized testing, and it is an essential every day life skill.
Conversation starters:
Google AI has some great suggestions for the types of discussions you can have with your child about characters and setting. Remember, books, tv shows, movies, songs, games, daily life events, and grandpa’s tall tales about walking barefoot uphill in two feet of snow to get to school all count!
Characters:
Setting:
Tip #3: Learn the common “recipes” for fictional and informational texts.
The plot of most children’s literature follows a generic recipe. Understanding the common ingredients of a fictional story helps kids organize the details of the text and extract more meaning out of what they are reading.
Talking about the ingredients of a text and discussing and/or writing summaries of stories using these ingredients is a great way to build comprehension skills. Here is a post I wrote about writing a summary for a fictional text:
Informational texts also tend to follow a generic recipe. Many schools teach kids the “Hamburger Model” for writing an essay. Most informational texts kids will read in school follow this same model.
Here is a basic burger:
Top Bun: The Introduction
This is the part of an essay/text that lets the reader know what he or she is going to be reading about. Sometimes there is a “hook” intended to grab the reader’s attention, and here is often at least one sentence (the topic sentence) that states the main idea or purpose of the text.
The Middle=The Meaty Part
This is where you will find examples , details, and additional information that directly support the main idea. There are often at least 3 examples that support the main idea, and in more advanced texts the author may cite research and/or connect those examples to his or her lived experience or the lived experience of the reader.
Bottom Bun: The Conclusion
The Conclusion often restates the main idea/topic sentences and includes a thoughtful anticdote or related question to ponder.
Tip #4: All stories matter
Stories are all around us. Like I stated earlier, discussions about books, television shows, movies, songs, video games and daily life all matter and will all build the foundation for reading comprehension.
Free and Low Cost Resources
Teachers Pay Teachers
- You can create a free buyers account at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ and gain access to tons of free and low cost resources. You can search by topic, grade level, price point, and more.
Standardized test practice
- With a quick google search you can access free practice sample texts and question sets that have been released by your state’s Department of Education. Expand your library of sample tests by looking up your child’s grade in other states. (You may have to set up an account for your state.) Here are some examples:
South Carolina
Reading A-Z:
- Sign up for a free trial to Reading A-Z and gain access to hundreds of books, articles, and resources. I have a paid subscription to Reading A-Z and love it! https://www.readinga-z.com/
You Tube
Looking for a read aloud? Try You Tube!
Looking for a free educational video on a niche topic? Try You Tube!
Looking for a tutorial? Try You Tube!