Join me for a look at reading comprehension strategies that will help your child grow as a reader.
This Reading Mama and I teamed up to bring you another collaborative series! Together, we shared nine reading comprehension strategies to help your child learn and grow as a reader.
In this series you’ll find sample lessons, book lists, and other tools to bring these strategies to life.
What is reading comprehension?
The simple answer? It’s understanding what you’re reading. But if you’re teaching your child to read or a helping a struggling reader, you know that reading comprehension is anything but simple. It’s actually a combination of reading, thinking, and reasoning.
Signs that a child struggles with reading comprehension
- He doesn’t understand what the story was about.
- It takes him so long to read the story that he can’t remember what’s going on.
- He may focus so much on the details that he misses the main point.
- He can’t retell the story in a way that makes sense.
What is a reading comprehension strategy?
It’s a tool to help your child make sense of what he reads. Imagine that your washing machine stopped working. You call the repair man, and he arrives at the door ready to help. But he’s empty handed. He’s simply not equipped to do the job.
Think of reading comprehension strategies as tools in your child’s tool box. Equipped with these tools, your child will be able to make sense of new texts. Best of all, reading comprehension leads to a love of reading.
How should you teach these strategies?
- Describe the strategy.
- Model it.
- Assist your child as he uses it.
- Release your child to use the strategy independently.
And don’t worry – our series shows you exactly how to do this.
Check out each post for a free lesson and printable!
- Schema – Children active their own background knowledge.
- Making Connections – Children make personal connections to text using their schema
- Predicting – Students use their schema, along with words, pictures, and text features, to make predictions.
- Inferring – Students learn to read between the lines, making their best guess with context and picture clues.
- Visualizing– Students create mental images as they read poetry.
- Questioning – Students learn to create their own questions so they become active learners.
- Determining importance – Students figure out what’s important as they read fiction.
- Synthesizing – Students use their background knowledge and text clues to “put it all together” and make new meaning.
- Summarizing – Students put the story in their own words using important details from the book.
Have you seen our other collaborative series?
P.S. If you’re looking for a more detailed look at reading comprehension, be sure to hop on over to This Reading Mama to see her series introduction.
© 2015 – 2016, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Rosa says
January 19, 2015 at 5:56 pmGreat Job!!
Holly B. says
July 21, 2015 at 5:51 pmI love this series! Do you have a list of reading comprehension strategies that should be taught in upper elementary? Or maybe a great book to refer me to reading?
Anna Geiger says
July 21, 2015 at 8:03 pmGreat question, Holly! It would take some time for me to find that, so I’ll direct you to This Reading Mama’s post instead: http://thisreadingmama.com/comprehension/comprehension-strategies/
She has some recommended books at the bottom which are worth looking through. She was a reading specialist and is actually planning to write an ebook on reading comprehension strategies, so she is more the expert. I recommend commenting on that post with your question! Tell her I sent you. 🙂
Janet says
June 1, 2016 at 3:18 pmIs there a specific book to buy or it is just information available on-line.
thank you
Anna Geiger says
June 2, 2016 at 10:49 amThis is not a book, but rather a series of blog posts. Click on each brown link to get loads of helpful information! Here are some published books you might find helpful: http://thisreadingmama.com/books-reading-comprehension-strategies/ (My favorite is 7 Keys to Reading Comprehension).
Viviana Taveras says
March 21, 2017 at 9:13 pmThis post was very helpful! thank you Anna!!!
Anna Geiger says
March 23, 2017 at 2:03 pmYou’re welcome, Viviana!
Jas says
March 23, 2017 at 10:56 amHello there,
Thanks for the post …i m mom of first grader but now got more confused after this post for where to start and which startegy to follow for which book. Do you have any book that guide us and give us set of questions for comprehension.
Anna Geiger says
March 23, 2017 at 2:03 pmI don’t have a resource like that, Jas – but I will keep it in mind as a possible future project.
Susan Zohar-Noam says
March 27, 2017 at 11:30 amI like your reading comprehension book “If You Lived in Kenya”. Are there other books in that series?
Anna Geiger says
March 31, 2017 at 5:34 amNot yet, Susan, but stay tuned over the next two months. 🙂
Cheryl Lombard says
November 20, 2017 at 1:16 amAlso loved the Kenya book!
Karen Trott says
November 19, 2017 at 7:54 pmGood Night!
Do you guys offer a course on teaching math, problem solving, place value etc for K-2?
This will truly be beneficial as well.
Anna G says
November 27, 2017 at 8:18 amNo – not at this time. it’s not currently in our plans, but my motto is never say never. 🙂
Lici says
November 20, 2017 at 3:07 amThis post was extremely helpful. Thank you.
Anna G says
November 23, 2017 at 6:35 pmYou’re welcome, Lici!
Heather says
November 20, 2017 at 7:38 amOngoing reading comprehension difficulties can also be a sign of a language disorder. Some kids have difficulty processing language. If in doubt, consult a speech-language pathologist who can fully evaluate language comprehension and use. (Just a friendly reminder from a speech-language pathologist who loves Anna’s resources!)
Anna G says
November 23, 2017 at 5:33 pmThanks for the reminder!
lavanya says
October 28, 2018 at 2:18 pmHi Anna,
I really like the way you share the details of every aspect of teaching.I have a first grader at home and he is facing a little difficulty in this part of reading especially the connections. I am trying the ways to move ahead in comprehension strategies.I have a question, Do all the kids in general have the ability to understand this part when they are at first grade?
Thanks,
lavanya
Anna G says
November 4, 2018 at 7:43 amHi Lavanya! I’d actually recommend that you check out this series about reading comprehension strategies. It’s for K-2.
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-teach-reading-strategies-with-picture-books/
Amalia says
April 29, 2019 at 3:00 pmI am an educator. I have taught 1st grade for 11 years. Teaching reading strategies is my favorite. Recently, I’ve decided to change up my approach (although it was working– I wanted to refresh and try something new). Your posts on the reading strategies have been great. I’ve been able to read through, feel inspired, and make it work for my group and my teaching style.
Thanks for sharing!
Anna G says
May 11, 2019 at 10:46 amThank you for your comment, Amalia – I’m so glad these have been helpful!