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Comprehension StrategiesThree strategies to improve reading comprehensionEven the best reading comprehension strategies will not do much good if a child or adult is unable to read. If you or your student needs to brush up on phonics and how sounds are blended to form words then try the free Learn 2 Read, Read 2 Succeed reading program. You do not have anything to lose if you try it and everything to gain.Comprehension Strategy #1 Read, Read Read This is the most important of all reading strategies! Whether you read to your child or your child reads on his own, the single most important thing is to READ! Reading anything is better than nothing. If your child hates reading, try comic books or the new graphic novels. These novels are written in the comic book style and have been helpful for reluctant readers. Or better yet, read aloud to her. This is a great opportunity to spend some one on one time with your child. We still have a weekly family reading time with our two youngest boys and they are 12 and 15 years old! Comprehension Strategy #2: Narration or simply re-telling If at all possible, establish a family reading time. Choose a book and spend at least half an hour every evening reading out loud. Then ask your child to narrate or "re-tell" what was just read to them, or if reading on their own, what they just read. It's that simple. In reality, we only work it into our schedules about twice per week now but that is better than none. Our kids are older and we no longer view reading time together as a comprehension strategy, but continue to do it as a family time. Most books we now use are downloadable audio ones and so it is really effortless. No matter how tired I am, reading together is something we can do as a family that requires no planning or much effort.
Narration is firstly an oral skill which can be easily transferred into writing. Here are some suggested narration starters which can be used after reading a story, and which can very easily become creative writing prompts.  This is included as one of the more important comprehension strategies because without a knowledge of word meanings a student cannot understand what he reads. If you are following #1 above, this will occur naturally. The more your child reads or is read to the more words and vocabulary he will be exposed to, thus allowing the child to understand more difficult phrases as he reads. Also, watch for "teachable moments", Have a conversation with your child discussing things that are going on in the world around him and use rich vocabulary. It's okay if the words are a little bit over his head. This will stretch his thinking skills as he processes the new word he is hearing. Forget all those fill-in-the-blank and matching vocabulary workbooks. Did you ever really enjoy them as a kid? You can bet your child doesn't either. Theses workbooks become tedious and boring, making your child reluctant to work with you in this area. Besides, they get enough of that mundane teaching at school. If you are fortunate to home-school, look into Charlotte Mason's philosophy in teaching a child. Her use of living books to teach most all subjects is very appealing to children and parents alike and just makes plain good sense.Note: Charlotte Mason was a teacher in the early 1900's. She is often credited as being the mother of the present day home-schooling movement. Outside the box thinking
The above comprehension strategies are timeless. They are not new, revolutionary ideas, just plain old common sense. However, schools have had to adapt and evolve their current methods due to class size. Strategies for teaching thirty children are different than teaching one or two. The current approach in schools is that of using textbooks
written by committees and worksheets that are easy to grade. I know, I currently teach science to high school students. The textbooks save teachers time in preparation
and worksheets are much easier to grade than student compositions when you have 140 students come through your class in a day. I was very skeptical about not using textbooks and workbooks when I first started home-schooling. I thought the way you are supposed to teach most subjects is with fill-in-the-blank/matching/multiple choice worksheets, especially for vocabulary. My husband convinced me otherwise, pointing out that if our sons read a lot of well written books, then they will learn vocabulary naturally. I figured it was worth a try, as I had been very impressed with Ms. Mason's educational philosophy. I decided it would not hurt anything to give it a shot. I could always catch my kids up with the commonly used vocabulary workbooks if I needed to. Needless to say, I never did need to purchase those workbooks. We did use one on Greek and Latin roots but that was it. When our first son, Jack, was tested in the second grade using state standardized tests, he scored in the 98 percentile for vocabulary and in the 87 percentile in reading. I never thought twice about using workbooks after that. We did have Jack read to himself for about an hour each day (in 15 minute chunks), and we read aloud to him during our family reading times. For some of the things he read, we had him narrate back to us. He was very resistant at first, but we let him know that it wasn't an option. By the time he was in the fourth grade, he read everything with focus and concentration, even if he knew he wasn't expected to narrate it back to us. Jack later received the honor of being a National Merit Semi-Finalist in high school.Note: Comprehension strategies work best when they are woven into your everyday activities and your child does not realize he is "doing" school. The following link will take you to some concept maps (also called thinking maps). These are one type of reading comprehension worksheets that require the use of higher order thinking skills. They are not a "fill-in-the-blank" type.
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