Learning how to pronounce words is only one element of reading. To become a strong reader, children must also understand what they are reading. The ability to extract meaning from text is known as reading comprehension, and it plays a crucial role in your child’s academic success. But unfortunately, many children struggle to develop the reading comprehension skills they need to thrive. If your child is struggling, implement one or more of these elementary reading comprehension strategies to help them reach their full potential:

• Using Background Knowledge
• Questions
• Reading Between the Lines
• Making Predictions
• Summarizing
• Visualizing
• Monitoring Comprehension 

Using Background Knowledge

Kids need to learn how to extract meaning from text by connecting what they read to their own life experiences.

For example, say your child is preparing to read a book about a famous baseball player. Before they begin reading, ask your child what they already know about baseball. Then, remind your child to use this information to better understand the story they are about to read. If your child is already familiar with common baseball terminology, they can tap into this knowledge to understand the text.

Questions

Encourage your child to ask and answer questions about the text before, during, and after reading a story. Some examples of questions include:

• What do I think this story will be about based on the cover, title, and illustrations?
• Why did this character say or do that?
• What caused this event to happen?
• How are these two characters related?
• What was the main idea of this chapter?
• What will happen if…?
• What would I do in this situation?

This exercise will help your child integrate information, remain engaged, summarize what they’ve read, and gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of the text.

Reading Between the Lines

Sometimes, an author will not explicitly provide all of the information that a child needs to understand a character’s motivations, the setting of the story, or the theme of the text. Instead, the author will leave behind clues that your child can use to make inferences.

For example, say the author states that the main character is looking at their dinner plate with a frown on their face. Your child should be able to read between the lines and infer that the main character does not like the food that they have been served for dinner.

Making Predictions

Similar to making inferences, making predictions involves using clues from the text to make assumptions. However, making a prediction involves thinking about what will happen next rather than interpreting what has already happened.

Take another look at the example from above. Based on this information, your child may predict that the main character will refuse to eat their dinner. Making predictions like these—no matter how small—will help your child better understand the text.

Summarizing

Kids should work on providing a summary of each story in their own words shortly after they finish reading. This exercise helps kids practice how to recall information, eliminate insignificant information, and condense the main ideas of the story into several short sentences. By summarizing every story they read, kids can drastically improve their reading comprehension skills.

Visualizing

As your child reads, encourage them to paint a mental picture of what is happening in the text. Research has shown that creating mental images of text can help a child process the information they are reading.

Teach them to visualize the characters, locations, and events that occur in the text. The more detailed their visualization is, the better. Not only will visualization improve reading comprehension, but it will also make reading more fun for your child.

Monitoring Comprehension

Monitoring refers to a child’s ability to recognize when they understand what they are reading and when they don’t. This skill is important because, without it, kids won’t know when they need to resolve problems in order to understand the text.

Your child should be actively checking in with themselves as they read to confirm that they understand the text. If they come across something they don’t understand, they should make another attempt to interpret this text. This may involve using context clues, looking up a word in the dictionary, re-reading a passage, or asking someone for help.

Improve Reading Comprehension Skills With the Readability App

Some children need extra help outside of the classroom in order to become better readers. If your child is struggling with reading comprehension, supplement their classroom instruction with the Readability app at home. Readability is a reading comprehension app that keeps your child engaged by asking questions, listening to their answers, and providing immediate feedback as they read. It’s just like talking to a teacher.

Using the Readability app can help your child improve their critical thinking and reading comprehension skills in no time. Download the app so you can start your free 7-day trial today.

There’s more to reading than simply knowing how to pronounce words. The purpose of reading is extracting meaning from the text, or in other words, understanding what you read. But unfortunately, many children struggle to develop the crucial reading comprehension skills they need to make sense of what they read. Studies have shown that a child’s ability to comprehend what they read can impact the rest of their lives. If your child is falling behind, it’s important to implement one or more of these six strategies for teaching reading comprehension:

• Monitoring Comprehension
• Graphic Organizers
• Answering Questions
• Asking Questions
• Visualizing
• Summarizing

Monitoring Comprehension

Encourage your child to actively monitor how well they understand the text as they are reading it. Teach your child to pause throughout the story to ask themselves whether or not they understand what is happening in the story and why.

Then, teach your child to re-read the section they don’t understand. You can also help your child rephrase the sentence or paragraph in their own words to better understand what the author is trying to say. If your child is unfamiliar with certain words used in the text, grab a dictionary, and look them up together. Then, re-read the text one more time.

Helping them become more aware of their level of comprehension is one of the first steps to improving their reading comprehension skills.

Graphic Organizers

Help your child create graphic organizers to better understand what they are reading. There are many different types of graphic organizers you can use to improve your child’s reading comprehension, including:

• Venn diagrams: Use this organizer to compare and contrast different characters within the same book, different books written by the same author, or different books written about the same topic.
• Storyboards: Create a storyboard to illustrate the sequence of events in a book. 
• Flow chart: Draw a flowchart to illustrate the cause and effect relationship between certain events within a story.

Creating these graphic organizers can help children understand relationships between characters, main events of a story, and other concepts.

Answering Questions

Get your child to answer questions about the text they just finished reading. Make sure to include a variety of different types of questions, including:

• Textually explicit questions: The answers to these questions are explicitly stated in the text. An example of this type of question would be, “What was the girl’s name?”
  
• Think and search questions: Kids must be able to recall details about the text in order to answer these questions. An example of this type of question would be, “Why did Little Red Riding Hood walk through the woods?”
  
• Background knowledge questions: Your child must rely solely on their background knowledge to answer this type of question. An example would be, “How do you think Little Red Riding Hood felt when she was reunited with her grandmother? To answer this question, your child must tap into their own experiences and connect with the text.

Having your child answer questions will help gain a deeper understanding of the text.

Asking Questions

You should also encourage your child to ask questions about the text. Asking questions will help your child identify parts of the story they may not understand.

Tell your child to come up with a list of questions. Then, answer them together to improve their comprehension.

Visualizing

Instruct your child to create mental images of the story they are reading so they can visualize what’s happening. Bringing the words to life in their mind can keep your child engaged and interested in the story, which can improve their comprehension.

Summarizing

Get in the habit of asking your child to give you a summary of what they just read. Your child should be able to summarize the text in clear and concise sentences. They should also know which parts of the story are important enough to include in the summary and which are not.

This simple exercise can help your child remember what they read and connect the events and main ideas of the story.

What is the Best Way to Teach Reading Comprehension?

Every child is unique, so the strategy that works well for one child may not work well for another. Regardless of which strategy is effective for your child, it’s best to supplement your lessons with the Readability app.

Readability is the only reading comprehension app that kids can use anytime, anywhere. The Interactive Voice-Based Questions & Answers feature keeps your child engaged with the text and helps them improve crucial reading comprehension skills. It’s just like working one-on-one with a digital tutor! Download the app on your smartphone or tablet to start your free 7-day trial today.

For many new readers, reading comprehension is one of the most important and often difficult skills to master to become a fluent independent reader. Students whose second language is English might find reading comprehension difficult and will struggle in other subject areas because of their comprehension level.

ELL students are no longer a minority in mainstream classrooms. In fact, ELL students make up about 20 percent of the U.S. public school student population. However, many teachers are not able to teach reading comprehension to cater to these students’ specific needs.

Parents with multilingual or English Language Learning (ELL) children might need to find how to increase reading comprehension in an unconventional way to supplement their reading curriculum.

What is reading comprehension?

Before knowing how to help your child with reading comprehension, you should become familiar with what reading comprehension actually means. Reading comprehension in the simplest terms is being able to understand what a text says.

Comprehension is the goal of most reading programs. Without comprehension, students are just identifying words but not actually absorbing the information within the text. If your child struggles with comprehension, they will likely struggle in school in the future since a huge part of learning is reading texts.

In order to master reading comprehension, your child will need to improve their skills in the six components of reading comprehension.

What are the five components of reading comprehension?

Reading comprehension is an important major reading skill that utilizes other skills in unison. The five components of reading comprehension are:

1. Decoding – Decoding words on a page relies on phonemic awareness and vocabulary building. This is essentially identifying words immediately and being able to see the word and make a connection to its meaning or function in the sentence.
2. Vocabulary – Since decoding is identifying words, it relies heavily on your child’s vocabulary knowledge. The more vocabulary they know the easier and quicker it is for them to decode. Vocabulary building often starts with sight words or the most common words in a language.
3. Fluency – Once your child has built their vocabulary and decoding, they likely move on to fluency. Fluency is the pace at which your child is able to read. This relies heavily on how quickly your child can identify words or decode unfamiliar words. Fluency can take time for ELL students to master because they might need time to distinguish between their English vocabulary bank and their native language vocabulary bank.
4. Sentence construction and cohesion – Although sentence construction might seem like a writing skill, writing and reading are closely related skills that often overlap with one another. Knowledge of sentence construction and cohesion can help your child comprehend the meaning of a whole sentence as opposed to just recognizing vocabulary words.
5. Recalling information – A great way to check your child’s reading comprehension is to have them summarize the reading or retell the text in their own words. This shows that they are able to recall information from the text and fully understand what the author is trying to say.

How can I help my multilingual child with reading comprehension?

Here are some ways you can practice reading comprehension with your child:

1. Read together – Reading with your child has many benefits such as creating a strong bond as well as gives your child a positive role model for reading. Listening to you read can help your child understand a story better, and you can check their understanding.
2. Get in the kitchen – Another way to get your child to practice reading comprehension is to cook a new recipe with them. This also teaches them some life skills in cooking as well. You can have your child pick a meal they would like to cook and have them read the recipe as the two of you cook so that they are given some responsibility to read the directions correctly.
3.  Learn something new – Find a new hobby or activity both you and your child would like to learn such as gardening or making some tie-dye shirts. Get the instructions and just like the cooking activity have your child read the instructions. Allow them to guide you in the activity so they are reading and have a sense of leadership and responsibility.
4.  Movie night – For multilingual and ELL students, being able to practice several language skills at once can help them immensely. Reading a book and hearing the target language through media such as movies can help them practice language skills. You can choose a book that has been turned into a film then you can have a movie night to watch the movie version of the book. This will help your child with recalling information and activating their creativity.
5.  Use a reading app – Another way for your multilingual child to practice several language skills at once is to use an interactive reading app. Readability is the perfect app to use for practice reading, listening, and speaking – three out of the four language skills! Readability has a large library of stories that your child can read and is constantly being updated with more original content. The app gives your child the option of having it read the stories to them or they can read the story aloud as the app listens to them. When they are reading aloud, the app will listen to them to give them feedback for improvement.

While multilingual children might have their own unique struggles with learning to read, many studies show that multilingual children end up doing very well in many different subject areas.

Using any of these activities can help your child to improve their reading comprehension, but if you want them to improve other language skills such as speaking and listening Readability is a great overall app for multilingual and ELL students to use. Once your child is able to master reading comprehension their learning in other areas will improve greatly.

Nightly reading is almost an ingrained ritual for families; during the school year, most students are expected to read for a specified amount of minutes each day. Although the duration is dependent on age and grade, most experts recommend 20 minutes a day. The simplest solution for many is to clock those reading minutes near bedtime.

Yet, while children may be focused on the pages for their designated time, parents don’t always know if their child comprehends the text.  How do parents know if children actually understand what they read in those books? 

Here are eight reading comprehension tips that parents can use to help gauge understanding and help children who may struggle with reading comprehension.

Read Together

Parents can read with children and discuss the story as they read. To work on reading and comprehension, parents can encourage their child to read aloud and then ask “wh” questions during the story. Or parents and children can take turns reading a page and then discuss the story.

Asking questions encourages children to think about what they’ve read. Parents may ask questions after each chapter, each page, or perhaps more frequently if they notice that their child is struggling with comprehension.

Choose Level-Appropriate Books

A child might not understand a book if the vocabulary is too difficult or if the level is more advanced than the child’s reading ability. Always select books that are at a child’s appropriate reading level to ensure that they can read the story fluently and understand the story.

Can parents allow children to read books beyond their level? Some children may read above their grade level, and this allows them to select books that may be a bit more mature. The books parents allow children to read is entirely a personal decision…and one that may differ by household.

Listen & Read

Some children may benefit by following along in the book as it’s narrated, and parents may choose to use audiobooks to help children hear the story as they read it silently and independently. 

Parents can try to incorporate audiobooks to see if the auditory resource helps their child to better understand the book. Again, though, parents should still ask comprehension questions about the story.

Use Reading Worksheets and Workbooks

There are several sites online that allow parents to download and print worksheets to help children with reading comprehension. These can be used as a tool to reinforce lessons from the classroom.

Parents also can order reading workbooks that can be used as an enrichment resource at home. Work with children a few times a week to keep them reading and focused on comprehension-related tasks.

Get Crafty with Comprehension

We are Teachers has many great (and crafty!) ways for parents to help their children with reading comprehension. Author Elizabeth Mulvahill recommends creating a “cootie catcher;” you probably made one of these in elementary school—they feature different ‘predictions’ for your future, but the comprehension version prompts kids to talk about the story. 

Mulvahill also included info on how to make a ‘retelling glove;’ on each finger, there is a prompt about the story (children may have to retell certain plot points). Parents can adapt the glove for each book or story…or just create a basic ‘retelling glove.’

She also provides info on how parents can create a beach ball with ‘wh’ questions or craft a ‘yellow brick road’ (every brick is a discussion prompt).

Set the Story to Music

Create a song based on the story! Have children write down the characters and plot points, and create a song for the book. Make it fun and choose your own rhythm! This is a great idea for kids who love music or who play an instrument.

Design a Diorama

Using an old shoebox, have children craft a scene that depicts a major plot point in the book. Discuss the scene and why it was important. Have children talk about the feelings of the characters as well as what happened next in the book.

Use a Reading App

Readability can be used at home to help children improve reading fluency and comprehension. The app features books that are individualized for each child to ensure that they are reading at the appropriate level. All the stories on Readability feature colorful illustrations and interactive features to keep children engaged and excited to read. A virtual AI tutor recognizes your child’s voice and provides feedback when a child stumbles or has difficulty with pronunciation; the tutor also engages your child to test their understanding of the story. Parents can view their child’s reading progress via the Parent Dashboard; this tool also shows parents how long their child used the app. Want to see how Readability can help your child? Try Readability for free for seven days!

About three months of summer vacation looms ahead, and parents who became teachers during the quarantine might be on the hunt for more ways to keep kids learning at home.

Reading comprehension struggles may have been noticed by parents during homeschool lessons, and, without access to teachers, those who have found that their children are struggling may wonder how to help.

Summer can be a more relaxed extension of the school year, and parents who have watched kids struggle with comprehension can use activities to work on reading comprehension at home. When school resumes for the fall, open a dialogue with your child’s grade level teacher to find other ways to boost their comprehension…or ask your child’s teacher about other options for finding help for struggling readers (teachers may recommend additional testing).

Here are five activities to help children with reading comprehension:

Read Books Online

Some children simply dislike reading standard books. Instead, download ebooks that can be read on tablets or other mobile devices. However, when a child really struggles with comprehension, parents should read with them and ask the child questions to check for understanding throughout the book. These questions may help to open a reading dialogue with your child…and get them thinking about the story and book:

• Who are the characters in the book?
• What are the characters doing?
• When does the book take place? Also ask when certain plot points are occurring.
• Where is the action taking place? Where is the story’s setting?
• Why did the character take a specific action?
• How do you think the character feels?

Amend these questions to specifically ask about pivotal plot points. Depending on your child’s comprehension struggles, you could ask questions after reading a few pages…or just wait until the end of the chapter or book. Some children need more prompting, others can summarize the plot easily after each chapter. Again, though, your child’s needs and struggles may require more (or less) discussions about the plot and characters.

Start a Family Book Club

Reading a book is beneficial for everyone. Start a family book club and get the whole family into the reading habit. So how do you decide which book everyone should read? Your family book club should ensure that books meet the abilities of all your family members. If your child is reading books geared to a fourth-grade level, then everyone should read a book that meets that criteria.

Yes, this may mean that a middle-schooler might feel that the book isn’t challenging. However, the goal is to get everyone talking about the book and engaging. Explain to older kids (or those who read more fluently) that reading the same book together is about the experience and bonding as a family.

Talk about the book after everyone completes each chapter. If your child has trouble remembering details or can’t summarize the plot, as a family you can go back through the chapter with your child and help them figure out key details.

Talking about the book is a great way to get everyone on the same page…literally. It also may help struggling readers understand that they have a strong family support system.

Listen…and Read

Listening to an audiobook while following along in a bound book may help children better understand the story, too. Some children are auditory learners, so hearing a story could be a great way to appeal to their learning style.

Again, though, parents may want to ask questions after every few pages or after each chapter. This helps gauge how much a child understands. If your child can summarize key points and details, you may just wait to ask those key questions after each chapter…instead of having a more frequent dialogue.

Some kids need a lot of help to understand the story, but others may catch on easily when they listen while they read. Do what works best for your child’s needs and struggles. Audiobooks can be a good choice for everyone!

Let Your Child Choose Their Books

Now that school’s out, children no longer will be required to read specific books. While some schools let children choose their own books, others have a book that everyone in the class is encouraged to read. Required books become more common as children get older—in middle school and high school.

During summer break, let your child choose the books. As long as a book is on their level and is age-appropriate, let them have the final decision. When children are able to choose their own books, reading may seem a bit more fun and like less of a ‘lesson.’

Don’t Track Reading Time

Put away the clocks and timers over the summer. Reading should be fun. So don’t put time limits, restrictions, or guidelines on summer reading. Your child may read a lot one day but only read for a few minutes the next day. Try to encourage regular reading. You may even designate a specific time for family reading to ensure everyone reads.  

Use a Reading App for Extra Enrichment

Children who are struggling with comprehension also may benefit from a reading app like Readability. The app is tailored to meet the individual needs of each child; lessons are leveled to ensure that books aren’t too easy…or too difficult. Colorful illustrations and interesting stories keep kids engaged, and a virtual AI tutor offers auditory feedback to correct pronunciation issues and gauge comprehension.

Test out Readability to see if it’s right for your child, sign up for a free seven-day trial today!

Reading comprehension is one of the fundamental steps of learning how to read. While there are other factors that also play a part, the stories your child chooses can also influence their reading progress. Keep reading to learn more about how to find the best reading comprehension books for your family.

What are the Three Levels of Reading Comprehension?

The actual number of steps to achieve full reading comprehension is still under debate. But many educators agree that the three main tiers of understanding are:

Literal Meaning

The first step of reading comprehension is being able to take the text at face value. The literal meaning of the story is the most basic, surface-level of understanding.

To reach this point, your child should be able to talk about these key points independently:

• Main idea
• Stated facts
• Sequence of events
• Story characters

Gaining a solid understanding of the most basic aspects of the subject matter is also the point where most readers begin to cultivate interest and investment in the story.

Inferential Meaning

Once the reader can identify the key elements in the text, the next step is understanding what’s being said. While step one focuses on establishing the “what” and “who,” inferential understanding answers “how” and “why.”

At this point, the reader can make predictions for the characters based on their prior actions and traits. Additionally, they should be able to:

• Use cause and effect scenarios
• Draw conclusions
• Provide unstated facts and main ideas

The first step in this process focuses on establishing the “what” and “who,” inferential understanding answers “how” and “why.”

Evaluative Meaning

Once the reader gains a deeper understanding of the story as a whole, they can start to apply their own opinions. This is the evaluative stage of reading comprehension, and it’s the final step of the process.

These questions often cover topics like moral decisions made by the characters, or difficult circumstances they encountered along the way.

Once your child understands the difference between these stages, they’ll be able to draw their own conclusions regarding the context of the story. This will also help them improve their reading speed and fluency since they’ll be able to navigate the story with more ease.

What are the Best Books for Reading Comprehension?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for building reading comprehension skills, but the best books for this reading stage typically have a few things in common.

When you’re shopping for books to help your kids practice their reading comprehension, look for books that will help them:

• Create mental images
• Use existing knowledge
• Make predictions
• Ask questions about the story
• Understand different themes and character paths

Stories that feature a clear storyline with established protagonists and antagonists are a great place to start, such as The Wizard of Oz or Little Red Riding Hood.

Try to find books that fit your child’s individual interests for the best results. Any reader is more likely to stay focused when they’re absorbed in the story.

If you use a reading app for reading comprehension, you don’t have to worry about building up a bulky library. You can access multiple different titles from your mobile device, giving your child more choices for reading material.

What Factors Influence Reading Comprehension?

Developing your child’s reading comprehension depends on more than just the books they read. There are a few key steps in the cognitive recognition process that can also influence your young reader’s success rate including:

• Background knowledge
• Vocabulary
• Fluency

Learning how to read effectively is rarely a linear process. Each step assists the reader with other aspects of the process, and every piece is important to the puzzle as a whole.

Working on these individual skills will not only speed up the process for your kids, but they’ll be able to advance to higher reading levels with more ease later on.

What’s the Best Way to Improve Reading Comprehension?

If you want to help your child get over this hurdle as quickly as possible, it’s important to keep the big picture in mind. Giving your child a variety of choices when it comes to what they’re reading and how they practice is one of the easiest ways to keep them on a routine.

Using a reading app to improve your child’s reading comprehension gives them the freedom to choose stories they enjoy while being able to learn and grow at their own pace. With real-time listening and adaptable AI, reading apps can track your child’s progress while helping them understand where they need to improve.

The individual exercises might vary between kids, but consistency and patience are the best ways to ensure a successful reading journey for any child. Follow these guidelines to find the best reading comprehension books for your child.