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13 Steps to
Help Improve Your Child's Reading Comprehension
1. Develop a broad background.
Broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines
and different genres of books. Become interested in world events.
2. Know the structure of paragraphs.
Good writers construct paragraphs that have a beginning, middle and
end. Often, the first sentence will give an overview that helps
provide a framework for adding details. Also, look for transitional
words, phrases or paragraphs that change the topic.
3. Identify the type of reasoning.
Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, model
building, induction or deduction?
4. Anticipate and predict.
Really smart readers try to anticipate the author and predict future
ideas and questions. If you're right, this reinforces your
understanding. If you're wrong, you make adjustments quicker.
5. Look for the method of organization.
Is the material organized chronologically?
6. Pay attention to supporting cues.
Study pictures, graphs and headings. Read the first and last
paragraph in a chapter, or the first sentence in each section.
7. Highlight, summarize and review.
Just reading a book once is not enough. To develop a deeper
understanding, you have to highlight, summarize and review important
ideas.
8. Build a good vocabulary.
For most educated people, this is a lifetime project. The best way
to improve your vocabulary is to use a dictionary regularly. You
might carry around a pocket dictionary and use it to look up new
words. Or, you can keep a list of words to look up at the end of the
day. Concentrate on roots, prefixes and endings.
9. Use a systematic reading technique like SQR3.
Develop a systematic reading style, like the SQR3 method and make
adjustments to it, depending on priorities and purpose. The SQR3
steps include Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review.
10. Monitor effectiveness.
Good readers monitor their attention, concentration and
effectiveness. They quickly recognize if they've missed an idea and
backup to reread it.
11. Visualize the text.
Create pictures in your head of vocabulary and description
from the story.
12. Create motivation and interest.
Preview material, ask questions, discuss ideas with classmates. The
stronger your interest, the greater your comprehension.
Question Types: (Students are familiar
with these; we do them in class)
Right There- Answer is in the story; simple question
Think and Search- Answer is there, but you have to read the whole
text to find it. It's a thinking question that's not as obvious as a
Right There Question.
Author and You- These are opinion questions; answers are not in the
text.
On My Own- Questions are
"conversation starters" about topics in the story; You don't even
have to have read the story to answer the questions.
See this website for more information on Question Types
13. Use Graphic Organizers to keep track of your reading.
Stay organized with your reading, and keep track of the
important details. Visit
this site for reading graphic organizers you can print out
and use!
Click to download "25 Fun
Ways to Encourage Reading"!
Other Websites
to Help With Comprehension:
Family
Education:How to Improve Reading Comprehension
What affects
reading success; a National study
Ms.
Sanchez' Reading Strategies
Reading is
Fundamental
Building
Language Arts Skills
Mrs. Gold's
Reading Strategies
14 things
families can do to help their children
Building Reading Skills
Reading Comprehension Steps by
Donald Martin, How to be a Successful Student
Background Set by
Daisy Dreams |
