Welcome
Welcome, this page is designed to provide some suggestions on assisting children with reading comprehension. Teachers are so busy these days that it is not always possible to give one on one attention and with this in mind all strategies discussed are chosen because they can be used with the whole class to improve all students reading comprehension.
Before we can discuss how to improve reading comprehension it is important to take time to ensure we understand what reading comprehension is and why it is such an important skill for all students to master. So going back to basics, what does comprehension mean? The Oxford dictionary online defines comprehension as "the ability to understand something". Therefore reading comprehension can be defined as the ability to understand what is read.
It is important to understand at this point that there are a number of types of comprehension that students rely on to learn. They are required to have strong listening comprehension, or ability to understand what they hear, they must learn how to have a strong written comprehension and good writing skills and they need to master visual comprehension (for example T.V shows, movies, documentary's). Without being taught strategies for improving these skills and given opportunities to practise and improve students will begin to struggle.
It is further important to understand that there is links between other reading skills and reading comprehension. For example reading fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension. It is very hard to be able to understand what you are reading if you are constantly stop starting while reading. We must ensure text is at an appropriate level not only for reading fluency but also reading comprehension, some students may be on a book that is below their reading ability because the book is aimed at their reading comprehension level, which is just as important.
This site will briefly discuss some theories related to Reading Comprehension and some of the many different strategies. One the following pages you will find tips and suggestions as well as some example work sheets, please note that all information provided is for example purposes only, you may wish to adapt to suit your individual students. It is vital that all teachers remember that a variety of strategies must be used. It is never helpful to only use one strategy as this limits students thinking and therefore their ability expand and enhance their skills.