Comprehension is the ability to understand the topics and ideas from written and oral communication.
Comprehension is an important skill. Once students can read accurately and fluently, they can begin to make meaning of what they are reading. This is a skill that happens when students shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” This video shares more about the fluency milestones across grade levels. If you’d like to learn more about the milestones for all the essential literacy skills, visit our online module here.
What does it look like when a child is struggling with comprehension?
What this feels like to me
- “It takes me so long to read something. It’s hard to follow along with everything going on.”
- “I didn’t really get what that book was about.”
- “Why did that character do that? I just don’t get it.”
- “I’m not sure what the most important parts of the book were.”
What I see at home
- She’s not able to summarize a passage or book.
- He might be able to tell you what happened in the story, but he can’t explain why events went the way they did.
- She can’t explain what a character’s thoughts or feelings might have been.
What I see in the classroom
- He seems to focus on the “wrong” aspects of a passage; for example, he concentrates so much on the details that the main idea is lost.
- She cannot tell the clear, logical sequence of events in a story.
- He does not pick out the key facts from informational text.
How can we support comprehension?
What I can do to help myself
- Use outlines, maps and notes when you read.
- Read things in short sections and make sure you know what happened before you continue reading.
- Ask yourself, “Does this make sense?” If it doesn’t, reread the part that didn’t make sense.
- As you read, try to form mental pictures or images that match the story.
What I can do to help at home
- Hold conversations and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life.
- Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers.
- Discuss the meaning of unknown words both those he reads and those he hears.
Find more information about what you can do at home to help your child in the box below!
What I can do to help in the classroom
- Teach students the structure of different types of reading material (narrative text versus informational text).
- Use graphic organizers that help students break information down and keep track of what they read.
- Teach student to monitor their own understanding.
- Teach note-taking skills and summarizing strategies.
What are some fun and easy activities I can do at home to support comprehension?
These are just some examples of activities that you can do at home with your child to support fluency development depending on the stage of your child’s reading. To find more easy activities to do at home that support all the essential literacy skills, visit our online module here.
- Wordless Picture Books: Reading wordless picture books allows children to use the illustrations to identify characters, setting, and events from the story. Don’t have wordless picture books? Cover the words!
- Picture Walk: This engaging routine supports children in using the illustrations to make predictions about a book before reading.
- Story Boards: Use a storyboard to retell a story after reading it. Click here for some free storyboards
- Act it Out: After reading a fictional book, encourage your child to act out their favorite part while recalling details from the story. If your child prefers, they can also draw their favorite part.
- K-W-L-S Chart: Before reading a nonfiction book with your child, discuss what they know and want to know about the topic. During and after reading, discuss what they learned and still want to know about the topic. This sets a purpose for reading and encourages them to pay attention to key details in the text.
- Retell the Story: This video describes how to support your child in retelling what has happened in a story so far. It is okay if your child needs to reread parts of the story before retelling.
- Graphic Organizers: Use a graphic organizer to deconstruct a story after reading it. Click here for some free comprehension graphic organizers
- Story Boards: Use a storyboard to retell a story after reading it. Click here for some free storyboards
- Interview Characters: With your child pretend to be characters in a story you read together. Interview each other and ask each other about what happened in the story. Ask questions about how they were feeling, what they were thinking. Ask about what they did before the story started and what they plan to do next.
- Act it out: Pretend to be characters in a story you read together. Interview each other and ask each other about what happened in the story. Ask questions about how they were feeling, what they were thinking. Ask about what they did before the story started and what they plan to do next
- Create a Comic Book: Your child can create a comic book or set of drawings to retell a story in a new way.
- Write About It: Writing about what they read helps your child better understand the text. Encourage your child to write a new ending to the book, draft a letter to a character or write a letter to the author explaining what they learned and still wonder after reading.
Adapted from
Reading Rockets, a collaborative project of Reading Rockets, The Access Center and LD OnLine,