Tools to improve reading comprehension

The more your child reads the better their comprehension skills will become. Reading comprehension is one of the main reading skills and relies on five strategies to be effective. As mentioned, technology is an important tool for learning. Reading comprehension is an important skill that is essential for your child to learn because they will use it all throughout their academics and life.

If your child is struggling with reading comprehension , you can help them to improve their reading skills by using these online tools such as Readability. Readability addresses reading comprehension by also improving other skills such as vocabulary, phonics, listening, and speaking.

How can my child improve their reading comprehension? Activate prior knowledge or make connections — Children already know a lot about the world by the time they begin reading. One strategy that can help them with reading comprehension is to think about what they already know about the topic in the reading and make connections to what they already know to the reading itself.

This gives them a basis for understanding what they might learn about in the new materials. Ask questions — This strategy involves the reader not just asking questions at the end of the reading, but at the beginning and while reading as well. In order to read any text, your brain must process not only the literal words of the piece, but also their relationship with one another, the context behind the words, how subtle language and vocabulary usage can impact emotion and meaning behind the text, and how the text comes together as a larger, coherent whole.

For instance, let's look at the first line from Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice :. Now, a completely literal interpretation of the text, just based on word-meaning, would have us believe that 'all rich men want wives. By using the phrases "universally acknowledged" and " must be in want of" emphasis ours , the text is conveying a subtle sarcasm to the words. Instead of it being an actual truth that 'rich men want wives,' this one sentence instantly tells us that we're reading about a society preoccupied with marriage, while also implying that the opening statement is something people in that society may believe, but that isn't necessarily true.

In just a few short words, Austen conveys several ideas to the reader about one of the main themes of the story, the setting, and what the culture and people are like. And she does so all the while seeming to contradict the literal words of the piece. Without practice in reading comprehension, nuances like these can become lost. And so it can happen that someone may find themselves reading, but not truly comprehending the full meaning of a text. As you can see, reading comprehension involves many processes happening in your brain at once, and thus it can be easy for some aspects of a text to get lost in the muddle.

But the good news for anyone who struggles is that reading comprehension is a skill just like any other. It must be learned through practice, focus, and diligence, but it absolutely CAN be learned. Does your school report your GPA as weighted or unweighted? What would your GPA be, considered on a 4. Use our tool to calculate your unweighted and weighted GPA to figure out how you stack up against other college applicants. You'll also get our proprietary college core GPA calculation and advice on where to improve to be a better college applicant.

Proper reading comprehension can be difficult, so why bother? Even though learning how to properly read and comprehend texts is a complicated process, it is a necessary skill to master, both for work and for pleasure. You will need to know how to read and interpret all kinds of different texts—both on the basic, literal level and on a more in-depth level—throughout your schooling, in college, and in the working world as well as in your recreation time!

If we think about "reading" just as a literal or surface understanding of a piece and "reading comprehension" as the complete understanding, a person can only get by in the world on pure "reading" for so long. Reading comprehension is essential for many significant aspects of daily life, such as:. Just like with any goal or skill, we can master reading comprehension one step at a time. Because reading comprehension is a skill that improves like any other, you can improve your understanding with practice and a game plan.

Dedicate yourself to engaging in a combination of both "guided" and "relaxed" reading practice for at least two to three hours a week. Guided practice will involve structure and focused attention, like learning new vocabulary words and testing yourself on them, while relaxed practice will involve merely letting yourself read and enjoy reading without pressure for at least one to two hours a week.

Note: if you already read for pleasure, add at least one more hour of pleasure-reading per week. By combining reading-for-studying and reading-for-pleasure, you'll be able to improve your reading skill without relegating reading time to the realm of "work" alone.

Reading is a huge part of our daily lives, and improving your comprehension should never come at the cost of depriving yourself of the pleasure of the activity. Before you can improve your reading comprehension, you must first understand how you're currently reading and what your limitations are. Start by selecting excerpts from different texts with which you are unfamiliar—text books, essays, novels, news reports, or any kind of text you feel you particularly struggle to understand—and read them as you would normally.

As you read, see if you can notice when your attention, energy, or comprehension of the material begins to flag. If your comprehension or concentration tends to lag after a period of time, start to slowly build up your stamina. For instance, if you continually lose focus at the 20 minute mark every time you read, acknowledge this and push yourself to slowly increase that time, rather than trying to sit and concentrate on reading for an hour or two at a stretch.

Begin by reading for your maximum amount of focused time in this case, twenty minutes , then give yourself a break. Next time, try for 22 minutes. Once you've mastered that, try for 25 and see if you can still maintain focus. Improve Reading Comprehension by providing a framework for learning and remembering information. Teaching story grammar structure emphasizes the importance of metacognitive or active reading strategies to improve comprehension. Encourage the child to preview comprehension questions.

This will allow the child to focus on answering those questions as they read. By the end of Grade two a child should be able to read approximately 90 words a minute. Rereading familiar, simple books gives your child practice at decoding words quickly and facilitates fluency. The optimal number of readings has been found to be four.

Graphic organizers, which provide a visual map for the reader, can be placed next to the text as learners read in groups or individually, aloud or silently. They are particularly useful in helping readers to understand the structure of a narrative or of an argument. Graphic organizers also assist in encouraging visualization of information which also assists with comprehension. Increase correct answers to reading comprehension questions by considering both the text and the background knowledge.

The question-answer relationships strategy helps students label the type of questions that are asked and to use this information to develop their answers. They come from different parts of the text. You can even answer the question without reading the text by using your own experience. Based on the questions, it is important to encourage the child to think about what they know and make predictions based on what they know and what they have read.

By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading.

Rainbow Sentences uses colors to help students differentiate between the who, what, where and why parts, showing them how to combine these into a proper sentence. Once the sentence is formed, students can also record it in their own voice, allowing them to improve their language skills. Use Storia, a reading tool from Scholastic, to build a large ebook library and monitor the progress of your students.

Having access to this wide variety of titles allows students to broaden their vocabulary knowledge, become stronger readers, and discover the kind of books they love to read. Be sure to check out the reading reports, as well, to see what can be done to improve their reading comprehension.

There is a variety of reading comprehension strategies that are valuable in every classroom. Combine them with technology to create a powerfully personalized and differentiated approach and watch every student soar. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Leave this field empty. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Jessica Sanders November 20, By Jessica Sanders Nearly one third of fourth- and eighth-grade students read at or above the proficient level for reading, according to NationsReportCard.