Helping DD w/reading comprehension

[Minnie824]

DD will be in 2nd grade next year. She's a good reader and can read most anything, other than of course tricky difficult words, but overall really good. However, her reading comprehension needs to be improved. I think she reads to read sometimes but doesn't pay a lot of attention to what it is she's reading. I need to work with her this summer on improving it, but she says its hard to remember it. Any tips on how to go about improving her comprehension? Thanks!

 

[golfgal]

Scale back the difficulty of some books, easier books to read. Have her read a page outloud and then tell you what the page was about. Have her read some easy, easy books, 2 or 3 lines/page books, point to each word as she reads to slow her down and then again, have her, in her own words, tell you what the page was about. Gradually increase the difficulty of the books she is reading.

You can also read outloud to her, read a page of a novel, then discuss what happened on that page, read another page, discuss, etc.

You can also get some textbooks that have questions (science, social studies, etc.). Have her read the questions FIRST, then read the chapter. After she has read the chapter, re-read the questions and answer them. You can do the same thing by making up your own questions to something she is reading (using the Magic Tree House books, for example).

 

[Mandychelle79]

This is my dd to a T.

But then again its also me. I can read and read and read, love to read, but tend not to comprehend somethings. I can however give you a very good overveiw of what the story is.

I discussed this with my dd's teachers during her IEP meetings and basically was told that at sometime she will learn to look back in the story to find the answers on the tests.

Some comprehension tests are too specific. I mean who really cares what color joe shirt was when he met the alien. Things like that.

 

[IDoDis]

What kind of books is she reading now? How many errors does she have per 100 words? She should have no more than 5 errors for every 100 words for independent reading. If you are helping her or guiding her through, then she should have no more than 10 errors per 100 words. If she's missing more than that then you need to bring her down a notch. When the level of difficulty is too high, there's no room left in the brain for comprehension because all of the focus is on decoding the words.

If this isn't an issue, than look at her reading fluency. Is she reading like a robot or is she reading with voice inflection? If she's doing the robot reading, model for her how to chunk phrases together and use inflection and pauses when you read to her. Then have her practice it with you. If she reverts back to the robot reading, let her know she's reading like a robot, and redirect her. Once her overall fluency improves, the comprehension will pick up. If she's reading too fast, slow her down.

Have her stop at the end of every two or three sentences and retell what she's read. Or you can give her a whiteboard where she can draw it. I'd start out doing the drawing myself and then use arrows to show the sequence of events. Then she can look at the paper or whiteboard of drawings and retell the story in it's entirety.

There may also be words in the books she doesn't understand. Have her use small sticky notes to mark the words she doesn't know the meaning of. Then you can go over them with her (or you can browse the stories first and pre-teach the words to her BEFORE she reads the book). Show her how you can sometimes not know what a word means, but you can figure it out based on what the rest of the sentence says. For example, if the sentence says, "Johnny was so exhausted that he fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow" you can figure out what "exhausted" means based on what the rest of the sentence is saying. I realize she's probably not reading words like "exhausted" yet -- I was just using that as an example.

So, take the reading level down a notch if she has too many errors, work on reading fluency, preteach vocabulary, and work on strategies to help her figure out words based on the context of the sentence/story.

 

[figaromeetsmarie]

Reader's Theatre is great! It improves fluency and comprehension. Skippy Jon Jones has a great free printable one on the website. It also includes Spanish words (it gives you a great opportunity to have her use context clues to figure out the what the words mean).

 

[Wendy31]

After kids learn to read, they need to learn how to "read to learn" which is a valuable skill that they will need all through school.

Even though she is a good reader and is reading to herself, she may not yet understand how to comprehend what she is reading.

All of the ideas that have been mentioned are good ones.

Read aloud to her or listen as she reads out loud to you. Then, discuss what you've read together so that she can begin to see what she needs to pick up on as she is reading. As you read the stories, in addition to the specific-type questions like "What was the name of the character?" or "Where were they going?", ask questions like "What do you think is going to happen next?" "Why do you think the character did what he did?" "How would you feel if that happened to you?"

Once she starts understanding the types of things she needs to be paying attention to or looking for as she reads, then you can start having her read short, easy-to-read stories silently to herself and then gradually increase the difficulty of the books as you see she is comprehending what she's reading.

Because she's not also hearing the words spoken, comprehension from reading silently is harder than comprehension from out-loud reading. It's a lot easier for your mind to drift when you read silently.

Additionally, there are all kinds of sites out there that have reading comprehension helps. Here is one link that has free, printable reading comprehension worksheets...

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/2nd-comprehension.html

When I taught kindergarten, we would receive "Weekly Readers". The "Weekly Readers" came with additional practice reading comprehension worksheets which I would do with the students.

Some other fun ideas - When she reads a book, have her draw a picture from one scene of the book, maybe her favorite scene or the most exciting scene, the scariest scene, etc. Let her make a "sequence booklet" for the story.

There are also the "Summer Bridge" workbooks - the workbooks have more than reading though (math, language, etc.) but the reading worksheets are really good.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

DD will be in 2nd grade next year. She's a good reader and can read most anything, other than of course tricky difficult words, but overall really good. However, her reading comprehension needs to be improved. I think she reads to read sometimes but doesn't pay a lot of attention to what it is she's reading. I need to work with her this summer on improving it, but she says its hard to remember it. Any tips on how to go about improving her comprehension? Thanks!

Does she play video games that require reading? It is a fun way to "read to learn".

What about computer games, board games and card games? Esp. card games. You can find some simple games like spades and hearts that require her to dig deep for some critical thinking skills.

I would include other media as well as books in your strategy.

 

[swanmom]

I highly recommend products from Educator's Publishing Service. Here is a link -
click the tab for "Comprehension."

http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/?subject=64S

 

[Lanshark]

If you're working on comprehension you typically go about a grade lower than her decoding(reading) ability. If testing has put her at about a 3rd grade level then buy her high interest books between 2nd and 3rd grade. That way she can concentrate more on understanding what is read rather than decoding the words.

 

[clarabelle]

recorded books
It doesn't sound like it would help -but they do help with listening and understanding, vocabulary
You can listen to them in the car

We download them from audible -but their are other ways too.
Library, buying them new or used at books stores and Cracker Barrel restaurants has them that you can "buy" and then when you return them (at any cracker barrel) at you get a good portion of your money back.

Some books are really well done on tape (or CD or download) with excellent readers. For example Eric Idle narrates a wonderful "Charlie and the Chocolate factory".

 

[Teacher03]

All the advice given is very helpful. I would also suggest that you make predictions before and during reading. Look at the cover of the book, the illustrations, the table of contents (if applicable.) Talk about what you think the book will be about and why. I tell my younger students to take a "picture walk" through the book to make predictions. Stop and ask "I wonder..." questions during reading. Discuss the characters and why they say what they say or do what they do.....what do their actions tell us about the character?

I also suggest reader's theater or the "I'll Read to You, You Read to Me" books to aid in fluency and reading with expression. I know fluency isn't a concern for you, but I feel it is always something that needs to be reinforced, plus it's just fun. It also helps with decoding skills and word recognition, which aids in comprehension.

 

[Niagara2]

What can you do once a teen complains they just can't remember what they read. Scary. How did he get to this point. Average marks mid 80's. Maybe if we caught sooner he would be honors like his brother.
Can't go back so looking for solutions o help at this stage of life. Thanks

 

[Buckalew11]

http://www.lindamoodbell.com/

Find a teacher or tutor trained in this method. It works!! I experienced it for myself at 40! Made all the difference in the world to me.

Good luck!!