Reading at Home: What to Discuss

We know that reading to and with our children daily is a vital way to support reading, language, and vocabulary development. Sometimes parents and families wonder if there are specific questions they can ask and discuss with their children. At school, students practice thinking about their reading in three major ways, and families can use them to talk with children:

What specific kinds of thinking could this include? Here are some general examples:

• Within the text:
  • retelling or summarizing; searching for information in the text; solving (taking apart words to read and understand them); checking whether it sounds & looks right and makes sense
• Beyond the text:
  • predicting; make connections to self, the world, or other texts; inferring what is implied by the writer beyond the literal information
• About the text:
  • analyzing how the text is written or organized, evaluating a text

Now to the specifics! Open the PDF linked below for some specific suggestions of things you can discuss with your child. Happy Reading!

Within, About, & Beyond the Text Questions for Reading at Home