Teaching Comprehension

There are many ways to support comprehension in listening and reading. These skills compliment and strengthen each other. Comprehension is something that actively needs to be taught. Children do not develop it all on their own without assistance and guidance.

Rhymes 

Introduce your students to rhymes on a regular basis as this repeated exposure will help them discover rhyming words. Repeatedly reading and retelling rhymes to each other helps children develop their memory retention and active listening skills. Who doesn't like a kid who can listen and remember what you say?! Not only that, it also helps children with their comprehension abilities when they are reading and what they hear others say.

Jokes

A fun way to help your child with comprehension is to teach them one joke per week that they can share with family and friends. Retelling the joke will have the same benefits as rhymes as it forces your student to use their recall memory!

Reading {Questions and Prompts}

Before Reading

Do a picture walk first. Ask what they predict is happening in the story and what they wonder about when they look at the pictures. What does it remind them of?

During Reading
Help them make connections to the text. Whether it is to their own lives, another book or the world around them. For example,
Text to Self - "I have a dog that looks like this dog. She does tricks like sitting for treats."
Text to Text - "The boy in the story reminds me of the kids in the book we read last week. They both love to go to the beach and build sand castles!"
Text to World - "This is a cool cat. Did you know that a lion is also a cat? Just a much bigger cat. I think they are one of the biggest cat in the world! Did you know that a tiger is a cat too?"

This story reminds me of...
This story is funny because... (change the adjective up)
This story is just like __ because...
Do you remember the time...

After Reading
Get your students to retell the story in their own words. Exposing them to the words first, then, next, after that and finally. Eventually, try to get them to use these words in their retell. Discuss with them what they liked and what did they not like in the story. Add a twist, if they were the author, how would they change the story!