Comprehension
While reading with your child, pause every few pages to focus on comprehension. Some basic ideas for comprehension discussions include:
-connecting the text to a personal experience, another text that is similar, and/or a world occurance
("This reminds me of...")
-visualizing text scenes with sensory details / draw a quick sketch of what has happened so far without looking at the illustrations
("I can picture...," "If I were in this scene, I would see..., hear..., taste..., touch..., smell...")
-inferring/explaining character feelings and actions when not explicitly stated by the text
-predicting what may happen next
(make predictions throughout reading and confirm/disconfirm predictions as text evidence develops)
-reading with a question in mind and seeking answers from the text
("I wonder...") -
-retelling text events in detail (characters, setting, text events in sequential order, main problem, solution)
-identifying text genre
(fiction - realistic fiction, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, etc.)
(nonfiction - biography, informational, how-to, etc.)
-identifying how the illustrations support the text
-determining main ideas / details (when reading non-fiction texts)
-inferring the lesson of the book / the author's message