Reading with your child is very important. I recommend your child be reading out loud for 20- 30 minutes each night. While reading you can help your child sound out new words and comprehend the text. To increase comprehension you can discuss the text, make predictions, make connections, infer, and ask questions before reading, during reading, and after reading. 

​Connect: when students connect to a story a certain part in the story will remind them of another story, a movie, something that happened to them or a real situation happening in their community, province, or world)

• Text to Self Connections: Relate ideas, events, and concepts read in a text to your daily life

• Text to Text Connections: Compare the book you are reading to a  book you have previously read. This may be with characters or events that happened. An easy thing for children to relate it to are TV shows and movies that they have seen.

• Text to World Connections:​ Compare the book to something happening in your community, your province, your country, or the world. This may be something your parents told you about, your learned at school, or you saw on the news or computer.​

Ask Questions:​ To better understand a story you should be asking questions before, during and after a story. Some example questions are:

Before Reading

• What do you think this story is about?

• What might happen in the story?

• Who do you think the story is about?

During Reading

• Tell me what is happening in the pictures.

• What do you think is going to happen next?

• What has happened so far?

• How does this character feel? (this is an inferring question)

• How would you feel if you were that character?

• Would you be friend with ___________? Why or why not?

After Reading

• What was your favourite part? Why?

• Give a summary of the story. (this should include a beginning, middle, and end)

• What was the setting in the story?

• Did the pictures help you understand the story better?

• Who are the main characters of the story?

• Did you like this book? Why or why not?

• Does this story remind you of anything that has happened to you? (connecting)

• Who was telling the story? (a character in the story, a narrator, etc.)

• Did the author share a lesson with you? (example: never give up)