Have you ever seen your child read a story and articulate every word but seem to understand none of it? They’re trying and trying, but the story doesn’t make sense. They struggle to summarize or paraphrase it for you. Your child may be struggling with reading comprehension skills. Reading comprehension is the foundation for your child’s academic success and is crucial across all areas of education: math, English, history, and science.
When your child can understand and retain what they read, they will be much better able to succeed. In addition to academic success, reading comprehension aids cognitive development through critical thinking and problem-solving by encouraging your child to analyze, interpret, and evaluate text. The goal of this article is to provide you with effective strategies, activities, and additional resources to enhance your child’s reading comprehension.
Overview of Reading Comprehension
So, what does reading comprehension entail? It includes decoding words, recognizing written words, and understanding their meanings to develop predictions, questions, clarifications, and text summaries. Key components of reading comprehension include fluency and an increased vocabulary. Fluency bridges the gap between word recognition and comprehension, while an expanded vocabulary enhances understanding of the entire text.
Strategies on How to Teach Reading Comprehension
1. Read Aloud Together
By reading aloud with your child, you create a bonding experience while enhancing listening skills and fluent reading. Establishing the habit of daily reading encourages your child to read independently. Choosing engaging books helps your child enjoy the reading process and fosters open discussions about the book, significantly impacting reading comprehension.
2. Ask Questions
Asking questions is an excellent way to evaluate whether your child understands what they’re reading. By posing questions before, during, and after reading, you guide your child to make connections and inferences, express opinions, and ask their own questions. It’s important to ask open-ended questions to encourage deeper thinking. For example, “Why do you think the turtle wanted to help the snake?” Give them time to gather their thoughts, analyze, and respond. These skills help them become stronger readers.
3. Summarize and Retell
After reading, have your child summarize the story in their own words. This gauges their understanding and reinforces comprehension and retention, allowing you to identify which elements they may be struggling with—be it specific vocabulary, content, or overall comprehension.
4. Use Graphic Organizers
Visual aids such as story maps, Venn diagrams, and mind maps can help break down reading material. If your child responds well to visuals, these tools can effectively dissect book themes, main ideas, and summaries.
5. Build Vocabulary
Building vocabulary can be achieved through reading, introducing new words weekly, and playing games like Wordle, Scrabble, or Word Association. Encourage your child to look up unfamiliar words to understand their meanings. Introducing a "word of the week" and incorporating these words into sentences can also help expand their vocabulary. Games keep kids engaged and interested in what they’re learning. A strong vocabulary enables your child to better understand complex texts.
Interactive Games to Reinforce Learning
1. Story Sequencing
Story sequencing helps your child understand plots and summaries by arranging story events in the correct order, improving their comprehension of narrative structures.
- Sequencing Cards: Use cards with illustrations and sentences for your child to order correctly.
- Story Sequencing Puzzles: Assemble puzzle pieces that represent parts of the story to create a coherent narrative.
- Sentence Strip Sequencing: Arrange sentence strips in the correct order to complete the narrative.
2. Predicting Outcomes
Encourage your child to guess what happens next in a story or suggest additions to extend it. This stimulates inferential thinking, creativity, imagination, and reading comprehension skills.
3. Vocabulary Building Games
- Memory Matching Flashcards: Create sets of cards with words and their definitions, synonyms, or antonyms for your child to match.
- Flashcard Relay: Divide children into groups. Each team member runs to pick up a flashcard with a word, and either states the definition, uses it in a sentence, or draws it. The first team to correctly handle all words wins.
- Sentence Completion Match: Use two sets of cards—one with incomplete sentences and the other with missing words. Have your child match the correct words to complete the sentences, enhancing contextual understanding.
- Customizable Crossword Puzzles: Create crossword puzzles using the words your child is practicing. Clues can include definitions, synonyms, antonyms, or sentences with missing words, making vocabulary learning game-based.
Tools and Resources for Teaching Reading Comprehension
1. Books and Guides
- "Reading Comprehension Boosters: 100 Lessons for Building Higher-Level Literacy" by Michael F. Opitz: Helps parents follow lessons that build reading comprehension skills.
- "Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement" by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis: Designed for parents and educators to use various strategies to teach comprehension.
- "Building Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners" by Katharina Block, William Block, and Barbara J. Block: Aimed at middle and high school students to develop reading strategies independently.
2. Educational Websites and Apps
- Websites:
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- ReadTheory: Provides free reading exercises tailored to each student's level.
- CommonLit: Offers a vast library of free reading passages with questions and assessments.
- Newsela: Provides current event articles at various reading levels.
- Apps:
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- Sora by OverDrive: A student reading app with a variety of books, audiobooks, and eBooks.
- ReadTheory: Offers personalized reading comprehension exercises on the go.
- Rosetta Stone: Enhances reading comprehension and contextual learning, especially for language learners.
Improve Your Child's Reading Skills with Genie Academy
Genie Academy is a top choice for tutoring in core subjects like math, reading, and writing, catering to students across all grade levels. Our expert, certified tutors provide personalized support customized to your child’s learning style and needs. For reading comprehension, we focus on improving vocabulary, understanding, and critical thinking skills to help your child excel academically and beyond.
Our flexible schedules make it easy to incorporate learning into your family’s routine, while our customizable curriculums ensure your child progresses at their own pace and stays engaged. With six convenient locations in New Jersey – Plainsboro, East Brunswick, South Brunswick, Hillsborough, South Plainfield, and Marlboro—Genie Academy is here to help your child succeed and foster a lifelong love for learning.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
1. Difficulty Maintaining Attention
If your child struggles to stay focused, try using short reading sessions and incorporating more interactive games and activities. This approach keeps your child interested and prevents them from feeling overwhelmed.
2. Understanding Complex Texts
If a passage is difficult for your child to understand, break it down section by section and discuss it together. Managing smaller pieces of text is more effective than tackling large chunks at once.
3. Dealing with Frustration
Always be encouraging and provide positive reinforcement. Support your child even when they make mistakes and create an environment where learning includes making mistakes, which is perfectly okay. Celebrate small accomplishments to build their confidence. Remember, they won’t try if they’re not confident!
Conclusion
Reading comprehension is the foundation for your child’s academic success and real-world application. Strong reading comprehension skills extend to other areas of your child’s life, making it important to start developing reflection, question-asking, and inference-making skills early. Early practice in reading comprehension also enhances critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, as comprehending complex texts requires your child to think beyond multiple-choice answers. While it can be challenging, early learning and confidence-building will benefit your child immensely. Celebrate their small wins and progress. You can do this, parents, and if you need help, Genie Academy is here to help find the genius in your child.
