Parents Page
How can I get my child to read more?
Set up a special reading time at night for your child. Clear away any
distractions such as clocks, telephones, tv's or computers,and make sure
the room is well lit and comfortable. Sit and read with your child and
discuss what you are reading together. Also, take turns reading aloud to
help improve their fluency, both will improve your child's comprehension.
Reading and Comprehension Strategies
Reading Strategies
Listed below are several things that really good readers do automatically
when they read. It will be helpful to your child to review these steps. By
reviewing these steps often, your child will begin to get in the habit of
doing these steps as they read too!
Before You Read
1. Read the title and headings to see if they help predict what the story
might be about.
2. Look at any picture or chart in the story.
3. Ask yourself questions that might be answered in the story.
4. Think about what you already know about the subject of the story.
5. Think about what you are reading while you read.
While You Are Reading
1. Check your comprehension by putting what you read into your own words.
2. Try to picture in your head what is being described.
3. Go back and re-read the parts you don't understand at first.
4. Look at any and all pictures or charts to help you understand what you
are reading.
5. Ask questions about what you are reading and try to answer them as you
go.
6. Slow down your reading rate when you don't understand something.
7. If you don't understand something, keep reading slowly to see if you can
make sense of what is happening.
8. If you still don't understand something, re-read it.
After You Read
1. Retell the main points of the story to see if you understand them.
2. Think about how the story fits with what you already knew.
3. Go back and re-read parts of the story you didn't understand.
4. Think about something you learned or reviewed in this story.
5. Think about whether you made good predictions about what the story would
be about.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:
Comprehension (reading with understanding) is a key element in reading.
Below are several comprehension questions that can be used with any type of
reading genre. Asking your child questions like these will help them become
better readers.
1. Have your child retell the story in sequential order.
2. What would have been another way the character could have responded to
the problem?
3. What would be another good title for this book?
4. What do you think someone in this situation might be thinking?
5. What do you think someone in this situation might be worried about?
6. What kind of person was/is _______________ ? What makes you think
he/she was that way?
7. What might this (word, picture, phrase, or symbol) mean?
8. What was the best part of the story? In what way was it the best? Why
do you think it was the best?
9. What relationship does ___________________ have with _________________ ?
10. Why do you think the character behaved as he/she did?
11. Where does the story seem to take place? (Setting!)
12. If you had to summarize the whole chapter (or story) in one sentence,
what would you say?
13. Have your child draw a picture of the story:
favorite part
one of the characters
the beginning of the story
the middle of the story
the ending of the story
14. Do you think that __________________ did the right thing when
_________________ ?
15. How do you think the character felt when ______________________ ?
16. How do you think the story would have ended if _________________ ?
17. What do you think will happen next? Why?
18. How would you solve the problem in this story?
19. Predict what would happen if ________________. Why?
20. Could this story be made into a good movie? Why or why not?
21. What caused _______________ to happen?
22. In what ways are _______________ and __________________ different?
23. In what ways are _______________ and __________________ similar?
24. What do you think ________________ looks like?
25. As your child reads a story, stop and ask:
What do you think will happen on the next page?
What do you think will happen in the next chapter? Why?