Comprehension

What is comprehension and why is it important?

Comprehension is understanding or making meaning. Reading comprehension and listening comprehension are both important parts of language. Many components factor into comprehension, vocabulary, for one, is important in both reading and listening comprehension. In reading the phonemic awareness, decoding, and reading fluency are also all factors that affect comprehension. To put it simply, your brain can only juggle so many tasks when you are reading and if it is busy with decoding or vocabulary struggles, there is less mental energy being devoted to the comprehension. When you can read something fluently, you do not need to devote much mental energy to the mechanics of reading and can spend more energy comprehending what you are reading. According to Reading Rockets (n.d.), reading comprehension involves making judgments, determining importance, differentiating between facts and opinions, noticing the feelings or emotions in the text, etc. In other words, “comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.” (Reading Rockets, n.d., para. 1) Without comprehension, there is no meaning made from the text or oral information.

To build reading comprehension, often students need to work on the other factors of reading, so they can read with fluency thus freeing up the brain for comprehension. Therefore, it is important to talk to your child's teacher to determine what area they need the most support in, and start there. If your child is reading with an expected fluency for their age and grade, but still struggling with comprehension ask the teacher to name specific comprehension skills and strategies that they are struggling with and target those areas.

Supporting comprehension development at home:

Retelling: For younger students practice retelling books after reading them, try it with the pictures from the book, and then without. Ask prompting questions as needed. Work up to your child being able to retell the story without the pictures and many prompting questions.
Read in chunks: Have your child read sections of the book with a few minutes of discussion after each section (Reading Rockets, n.d.)
Make connections: Have your child connect events in the story to things they have seen, done, read before. Model making these connections if your child has difficulty with this. Use language such as “When I read this, it reminds me of a time I…” or “This makes me think of this (book, movie, etc) that …” Young children often try to make their connection exactly like what happened in the story, encourage them away from doing that. Check out this article for more models: Think Alouds to Build Comprehension
Characters: Discuss why the characters do what they do and how they feel. Discuss the reasons why they feel that way, and how you know it. Help them put themselves in the characters' shoes and discuss what your child would feel if it were them.
Problem/Solution: Most fictional stories have a main problem and solution. Help your child identify both. Discuss smaller problems in the stories that the characters face.
The most important part/event: Discuss the most important part of the story. In a story with a problem and solution, it is usually when the solution occurs, help them use that as a clue.
Use prior knowledge: Model for your child how you can use what you know to understand what you are reading. This also helps with making connections. “I think about what I know about _______ and it helps me understand ________”
Common Core Standards and Comprehension: Check out this article to learn more about common core standards and comprehension expectations: How Parents Can Support the Common Core Reading Standards (Reading Rockets, 2013) including key ideas/details,craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas.
More articles with tips for parents:
- - - - 7 Tips to Help Kids Understand What They Read (Osewalt, n.d.)
        6 Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension (Scholastic Parents Staff, n.d.)
        5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension (Parrish, 2020)

References:
Gold, J. & Gibson, A. (2001). Think alouds to build comprehension. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/think-alouds-build-comprehension .
Osewalt, G. (n.d.). 7 Tips to help kids understand what they read. Understood. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/7-tips-to-help-kids-understand-what-they-read
Parrish, N. (2020, February, 3). 5 Ways to support students who struggle with reading comprehension. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-ways-support-students-who-struggle-reading-comprehension
Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Comprehension. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/comprehension .
Reading Rockets. (2013). How Parents Can Support the Common Core Reading Standards. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-parents-can-support-common-core-reading-standards
Scholastic Parents Staff. (n.d.). 6 Strategies to improve reading comprehension. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/reading-resources/developing-reading-skills/improve-reading-comprehension.html
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Comprehension

What is comprehension and why is it important?

If you want to help your child become better at reading and communicating, there are ways you can help at home.