If you teach reading comprehension, you know how difficult it can be. Some students may be able to read and decode fluently but struggle with understanding the text. For others, this might be too much.
Teaching reading comprehension is important because it develops a child’s metacognitive skills, visual comprehension and ability to engage in cooperative discussion with their peers.
Beyond reading, this also enhances a child’s writing, listening and speaking skills so that students are fully immersed in learning the language while improving their ability to make inferences, reason, develop oral and grammatical expression and improve their understanding of figurative language through ongoing vocabulary growth.
The following three steps will engage your children in reading comprehension.
Actionable Steps:
#1. Model For Your Students
Read aloud to your students and ask them questions to assess their prior knowledge and to help them predict what will take place next. Look at vocabulary that might be new or confusing for your students. Teach them how to chunk them up to say the words and learn the meaning of them. Have discussions about the book as well. This shows children how to think on a deeper level when they read a book on their own.
#2. Group Them
Group your students based on their reading level and give them age-appropriate books to read. In their groups, they can have a discussion after a certain number of pages or chapters. Teach them how to summarize what they’ve read to explain it to each other and to the class.
These groups provide students with a forum to ask clarifying questions in a safe space. You can walk around and provide extra support to each group.
#3. Focus on In-dept Learning
Provide your students with the opportunity to really go in-depth with their reading by taking a project-based learning approach. Give them a few pages or a section at a time to work on. They can share their completed work with their group and then with you so that you can gauge their learning and provide them with additional support.
This allows your students to put their learning on paper so that they can practice their writing skills while committing it to memory. It is also a much more fun approach than merely reading a book and answering questions.
Recap:
Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:
- The importance of teaching reading comprehension to your students.
- How to teach reading comprehension to elementary and middle school students: model for your students, group them, and focus on in-depth learning.
Free Resources:
If your children are struggling to hand in assignments on time, check out the following video training: 3 Steps to Teach Children How to Overcome Procrastination to Increase Productivity.
In the mean time, if you’re feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and burnout, then I encourage you to check out the following: FREE MASTERCLASS: Systematic Plan to Super Passionate.
Next Steps:
For calm down areas on a budget, for your students who have autism, CLICK HERE.
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I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.
Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.
Take care,
Charlotte
