Comprehension - Grasping Meaning
Reading comprehension is the culmination of all of the reading skills and it is the ultimate goal of learning to read.
The purpose of mastery of each of the four previous skills is to enable comprehension, and reading comprehension facilitates mastery of the other four skills.
Comprehension and fluency are closely related. Some reading and activity sheets cover both of these areas and are located under the fluency component. To get to these, click here.
Reading with a Purpose
Before Reading: What do you think or predict that this text will be about? What do you already know about this topic? What would you like to learn about it?
During Reading: What do you know so far? Did any of your predictions come true? What do you think will happen next? Is there anything you don't understand?
After Reading: In a story, name the characters, setting, problem/ solution, events. In information text, what did you learn from this text? What would you still like to learn about this topic?
Comprehension Strategies
Predict. What do you think this text is about?
Clarify. Is there anything in this text that you did not understand?
Summarize. In your own words, what is this text about?
Visualize. What pictures does this text bring to your mind?
Question. What questions do you have as you read this text?
Infer. What do you think the author of this text is trying to say?
Connect. Have you ever had any experiences like this author is talking about?
Excerpted with appreciation from Reading Rockets materials