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Cognition and Learning|Comprehension

Tools and tips

Question Question Question!

Use question generators to help students formulate their own questions about texts (An example of a Question Generator has been included in the Toolbox Section) and A Question Poster for your classroom wall to give you cues.

Spot the Tricky Words

Try to have a look through a text or any words you are using to make sure you spot any tricky ones, don't assume students know the meaning of a word it is better to check.

Know your students strengths and weaknesses

Make sure you regularly listen to a student read to check that they are fluent readers, reading fluency (ability to read at a good pace) can greatly hamper comprehension. Students with memory difficulties can also struggle to hold whole sentences and paragraphs in their head. Using pictures and images can help act as anchors and memory cues, you could even ask students to draw their own illustrations as a strategy to help with memory.

Use and Develop Common Comprehension Strategies

Use these core reading comprehension strategies, including

• Activating and Using Background Knowledge. ...
• Generating and Asking Questions. ...
• Making Inferences. ...
• Predicting. ...
• Summarizing. ...
• Visualizing. ...
• Comprehension Monitoring.

This link to Reading Rockets will give you more information on each of the strategies above.

Toolbox