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I'd like to share some reading comprehension resources that can help you with teaching comprehension.

"But I just don't get it.'" Ever heard that phrase before from a student or your own child? If you've worked with teaching reading to kids very long, you are sure to have encountered a child who struggles to comprehend or making meaning of what he's reading.

What should you do? Where do you start? This can be tricky because, for the most part, comprehension is silent and can feel a little abstract.

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Reading Comprehension Resources

Click on each highlight link below to hop over to the resource or article mentioned in this list.

A long time ago, a professor of mine said something I've never forgotten. After she asked the class, "What is reading?" and listened to all our answers, she said, "If you really boil it all the way down, reading equals thinking." That really stuck with me.

Kids need to know that reading equals thinking. We think before we read. We think while we read. We think after we read. We don't just "bark words", we make meaning. But what exactly do readers think about? That's where the comprehension strategies come into play. My reading equals thinking post explains each one with some common kids of phrases we tend to think or say for each strategy.

If you're like me, I like to see concrete examples of things that are more abstract in nature. That's what our Reading Comprehension Series is all about. The Measured Mom and I teamed up this past spring and posted 10 weeks of comprehension strategy lessons.

In this series, you'll find explanations of each strategy, but more importantly, there are practical lessons {with many free downloads} for you to try, or adapt, yourself. Woohoo!

In the comprehension series mentioned above, each lesson features a book or two that fits nicely when teaching a particular comprehension strategy. After mulling over it for a year or so, I decided to take the plunge and create my own book lists for each reading comprehension strategy. The books that are on each list are mostly books that I've used and loved over the years as a classroom teacher, private reading tutor, and homeschooling mom to model each of the comprehension strategies.

Kids who struggle with comprehension need it to be modeled for them. They need to hear you speaking your thoughts out loud such as, "I wonder why..." or "That reminds me of..." They need to "see" your comprehension, so to speak. My goal was to include books on each list that naturally fit each strategy so that it was easy to model them when reading aloud or together.

It's always nice to have support when we are learning something new, isn't it? Kids who are learning to practice and apply the reading comprehension strategies are no different. That's why I created this reading comprehension pack.

In this pack, are wall charts, a 1-page resource {great for a reading folder}, and bookmarks to help remind kids of each comprehension strategy and why we use it. Note: This pack {as well as many other free packs} is for my newsletter subscribers only! If you're not a subscriber, you can be by signing up here.

Kids who struggle with comprehension tend to think that "good" readers do not. I say "good" in quotes because I don't use this word with struggling readers. I know this after working with many of them, even my own son. They tend to think that comprehension requires little work and should come naturally. While that may be more true of older, more proficient readers, comprehension isn't always easy. Occasionally, we come across words we don't know or we get distracted and can't remember what we just read 2 paragraphs ago.

"Good" readers do make mistakes. "Good" readers do have to figure out word meanings. But the difference is that "good" readers use strategies to help them fix things when their comprehension gets off. And that's what this post is all about. It also comes with a free printable, perfect for kids to see the strategies that all readers use.

In this post, I share 5 simple ways to improve reading comprehension using any kind of text. We have to remember that struggling readers need support before, during AND after reading.

If you have a struggling reader in your classroom or at home, I'd highly recommend you try Snap! Learning and explore all the resources they have for supporting your struggling reader during all parts of the reading process.

What Kinds of Comprehension Questions Do You Ask?*

Sometimes, we hinder the comprehension process by asking questions that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Questions like, "What color was the main character's shirt?" or "What did the boy say on pg. 8?" are not at all helpful for building comprehension. {You might laugh, but I've seen these kinds of questions on a particular computer-based reading program our school used.} We want our questions to require kids to THINK ABOUT what they've read.

Saving all our questions until the end of reading is a very common practice, but I encourage you to try asking questions before reading, during reading, and after reading, like I mention in this post, How to Ask Questions to Check Comprehension. After all, that's what proficient readers do.

And like I mentioned above, it all depends on the KINDS of questions we're asking. Like I wrote about in my 10 Things Struggling Readers Need series, we need to ask questions that lead to "thoughtful literacy", not questions that rely on rote memory alone.

If you're looking for a new ideas on thoughtful kinds of questions that foster discussions, check out the free discussion questions that I created. There are some for fiction as well as nonfiction and they work well, even if you haven't read the book. I share even more comprehension questions in my book, How to Choose "Just Right" Books: Helping Kids Grow as Readers.
*A BIG NOTE: If your child is reading early readers, like the predictable texts from Reading the Alphabet or phonics readers, like those that The Measured Mom has made or BOB Books, the main purpose of the text isn't for comprehension. The main purpose of early readers is for learning to read the words. Building comprehension in the young readers is mostly done through read aloud books, like those from the books lists I've created, not by asking literal questions about Joe's shirt color.
Understanding Text Structure

Wow, that sounds complicated and a little scary. It sure did to me the first time I heard that term. But text structures is important to reading comprehension, especially when it comes to determining what's important and summarizing texts.

Text structure just refers to understanding the way an author has organized the information in the book. {By the way, Emily Kissner's book, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling is a fantastic book to help you understand more about text structure. Love her book!}
Fiction Text Structure Nonfiction Text Features Nonfiction Text Structures
Here are some FREE comprehension charts for text features & text structures. You'll find a free chart, ideas for how to use it, and book suggestions for each skill! Find one for Fiction Text Structure, Nonfiction Text Features, and Nonfiction Text Structures!

For kids who need to work on understanding how fiction stories are organized, my simple SCOOP retelling chart or retelling pack is a FUN way to help kids understand.

Obviously, fiction text structure is different than nonfiction text structure. Authors also include story elements and text features to help build the structure. You can read more about each kind of text structure in our 5 Days of Teaching Text Structure Series. In it, are three FREE printable packs for helping you teach text structure to your readers.

Phonics {and Sight Word} Instruction

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that thinking about what you read isn't all that really goes into comprehension. If kids are reading books that are too difficult for them {they can't decode or recognize the words}, it can negatively affect their fluency and understanding of what they're reading.

Readers need phonics instruction that helps the English language make sense. Instead of focusing on random lists of rules, they need instruction that helps them analyze, compare, and spell words that share the same phonics pattern. If you have followed me for very long, you know I love to make free phonics printables!

Two of my favorite spelling programs that do just this are All About Spelling and Words Their Way {which follows the word study approach}. If you want to read more about teaching kids to spell, I happen to have a book called {drum roll please}...Teaching Kids to Spell and a fun post that features 50 Different Hands-On Activities for Teach Spelling.

I have also worked hard over the last few months to provide spelling apps for kids, too {with more on the way!} So far, we have Alphabet Sounds App {left}, Short Vowel Word Study App {middle}, and Long Vowel Word Study App {right}. All three of these apps are interactive and require kids to sort, analyze, spell and write by phonics patterns.

But phonics instruction is only half the coin when learning to read. Kids need to become automatic in their recognition of words. Most people know the term "sight words", but "high frequency words" is probably the most accurate term. Certain words appear quite often, or frequently, in text {the first 100 of Fry's list make up about 50% of anything you read} and we don't want kids sounding out these words every time they get to them.

Enjoy!
~Becky

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Reading Comprehension Resources: Helping Kids "Get It"

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I'd like to share some reading comprehension resources that can help you with teaching comprehension. "But I just don't get it.'" Ever heard that phrase before from a student or your own child? If you've worked with teaching reading to kids very long, you are sure to have encountered a child who struggles to comprehend or making meaning of what he's reading.

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Building Vocabulary

What Is It?

One of the most important responsibilities of every teacher is to help students develop a strong working vocabulary. Vocabulary falls into four categories:

1. Listening: the words we understand when we hear them

2. Speaking: the words we use when talking

3. Reading: the words we understand when we read

4. Writing: the words we use when writing

To develop students' vocabulary, teachers must encourage a curiosity about the meaning and use of unfamiliar words and promote the use of strategies that will help students find the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Why Is It Important?

The size of a person's working vocabulary is both a measure of educational attainment and a key to academic and career success. Vocabulary development, for example, is crucial to success in reading. Research shows that the proportion of "difficult" words in a text is the single most important predictor of the difficulty of the text, while the size of a person's vocabulary is the best predictor of how well that person can understand the text (Anderson and Freebody 1981).

Unfortunately, research also shows marked differences in vocabulary development in students from high- and low-income families, with a widening gap during the first three years in the lives of children - much of which can be attributed to the level of verbal interactions that children have with their parents. For example, researchers have found a difference of almost 300 spoken words per hour between parents who hold professional positions and parents on welfare. As a result, by the age of three, children in "professional" families actually had a larger vocabulary than the parents with low-incomes (Hart and Risley 1995).

Research also shows that children who enter school with a vocabulary deficit tend to continue to fall behind through the course of their schooling. If education is truly to be the "great leveler" and provide all children access to the same opportunities, teachers must somehow find ways to reverse this trend and help all children develop a rich working vocabulary.

How Can You Make It Happen?

Strategies for fostering vocabulary development fall into two broad categories: teaching strategies for vocabulary directly and learning new words indirectly. Generally, school-age children learn about 3,000 new words a year, but only about 10 percent of these words come from direct vocabulary instruction. The rest come from their everyday experiences with oral communication, listening to text read aloud, and reading a wide variety of texts independently.

Researchers conclude that teachers can have the biggest impact on vocabulary by increasing the amount of incidental word learning (Nagy and Herman 1987).

Indirect Vocabulary Instruction

Teachers can help students increase vocabulary by including powerful, difficult words in their oral language while they teach, and encouraging students to use those words in their speaking and writing.

Read, Read, Read

The single most effective way of helping students build vocabulary is by increasing the amount that they read. Researchers have found that students who read just 10 minutes a day outside of school demonstrate significantly higher rates of vocabulary growth than students who do almost no reading outside of school (Nagy and Anderson 1984). Students are likely to develop vocabulary more rapidly when the books they read are not only easy enough to read fluently but also contain unfamiliar words. Most importantly, students need to read a lot to have the frequent encounters with words in different contexts that lead to true word knowledge; the sheer volume of reading matters. Find ways to increase the amount of reading that students are doing, and they inevitably will build vocabulary. It's that simple.

Thoughtful Classroom Discourse

Talk is also important. Children whose parents talk to them often on a range of topics come to school with a much larger vocabulary than children from homes where talk is limited. These children do not have a larger vocabulary because they are smarter - rather, they are smarter because they have a larger vocabulary. Assist children with vocabulary deficits by providing them with the same sort of highly interactive, language-rich environment that advantaged children have at home. Engage students in conversations on a wide range of topics, calling attention to the shades of meaning of interesting words in their daily interactions with text (both written and oral), and promote a spirit of curiosity about words and the different meanings that words can have in different contexts. Don't be afraid to use "big words," as this is how students will learn.

Direct Vocabulary Instruction: Learning New Words

Students can learn new words by finding meanings of words in meaningful contexts; using dictionaries, and using structural analysis to find the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Vocabulary in Context

Researchers have found that teaching dictionary definitions of words out of context does not enhance the comprehension of a text containing those vocabulary words (Stahl & Fairbanks 1986). Students need to encounter words repeatedly and in a range of contexts before the words become part of their working vocabulary. For example, McKeown, Beck, Omanson, and Pople (1985) found that students did not really know and understand words they had only encountered 4 times, but they did know and understand words they encountered 12 times.

Using a Dictionary

Students should be taught how to use dictionaries to look up the meanings of unknown words. Small pocket dictionaries are inexpensive and can provide a wealth of information, provided that students know how to use them. Dictionary skills, such as using guide words, understanding parts of speech, and deciphering phonetic spelling, should be explicitly taught and practiced. Dictionaries are also useful in introducing multiple meanings of words. Students can practice working out which of several defined meanings of a word is relevant in a given passage.

Word Walls

Words that are used often or are easily confused can be displayed in a classroom on a word wall. Be selective about which words go on the wall, making sure the words displayed are really those your students need to know. Add words gradually, a few each week, and provide plenty of opportunity for students to say and write them. Students can choose a word and give clues about the word for other students to guess. For example, "The word begins with the same sound as head and rhymes with mouse."

Vocabulary Journals

Encourage students to build their vocabulary every day and keep a vocabulary journal. Students can write 10 words in their journals each week that they have either heard in class or read in a textbook or novel. Have them use context clues or structural analysis to try to figure out the meanings, and then allow them to use a dictionary to check the definitions. Students can use the 10 new words they've learned to write pairs of analogies that express one of the relationships you have reviewed with them. Examples of analogies can be found in the "How can you stretch students' thinking?" section.

Using Context Clues

Most students will naturally use context clues to try to find the meanings of words. For example, given a sentence such as:

Unlike Virginia, who never talked much at all, Stella was a garrulous sort, with more to say than most of us wanted to hear.

A reader who is unfamiliar with the word garrulous may figure out a rough approximation of its meaning based on the contrast of Stella, the garrulous one, and Virginia, "who never talked much at all."

One way to teach using context is to give students text with some unfamiliar words. Have them circle the words they don't know, guess their meanings, and tell how they arrived at their guess. Then have them take turns explaining their guesses. Make a list on the board of the strategies they used. Common context clues include a restatement (signaled by that, is, or, in, etc.), a comparison (signaled by like, similar to, as, or the use of a synonym), or a contrast (signaled by but, not, although, or the use of an antonym).

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One of the most important responsibilities of every teacher is to help students develop a strong working vocabulary.

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Words and sentences have parts that combine in patterns, exhibiting the grammar of the language. Phonology is the study of patterns in sound or gesture. Syntax and Semantics involve studying patterns in sentence structure, from the vantages of form and meaning, respectively.

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What is verbal reasoning?

Verbal reasoning is, in a nutshell, thinking with words. 'As the name suggests, it's a form of problem-solving based around words and language,' explains Stephen McConkey of Eleven Plus Exam Papers. It involves thinking about text, solving word problems, following written instructions to come up with a solution, spotting letter sequences and cracking letter- and number-based codes. Verbal reasoning exams are intended to test a child's ability to understand and reason using words, and are a test of skill, rather than of learned knowledge. The theory is that they allow the examining body to build a picture of a child's potential for critical thinking, problem-solving and ultimately, intelligence.

What sort of questions are involved?

'It's generally agreed that there are 21 standard types of verbal reasoning question,' says Stephen. These include:

Finding one letter that will complete two words, e.g. hoo (D) oor

Finding a word hidden inside another word, e.g. dePENd

Spotting the odd ones out in a list of words, e.g. apple, pear, banana, CREAM, PUDDING

Finding the words that mean the same from two lists, e.g. PLAIN/expensive/rich and SIMPLE/money/earnings

Finding antonyms (opposites) from two lists of words, e.g IN/on/over and through/between/OUT

Breaking a code where each letter of the alphabet is represented by a different letter or number (e.g. A becomes B, B becomes C, C becomes D, so that 'cat' would be written 'dbu')

'Although the majority of verbal reasoning tests are word-based, some are based on numbers,' adds Stephen. For instance, a verbal reasoning exam could include questions where you have to give the next number in a sequence (1, 5, 9, 13...), or where you have to solve a sum where the numbers are represented by letters (so if A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4 and so on, C+A=4). Although these questions require a basic grounding in maths, the main principle is the same as for word-based verbal reasoning problems: to test your child's ability to solve problems based on written instructions.

What skills and knowledge do children need for verbal reasoning tests?

'Children perform best in verbal reasoning tests if they're widely read and have an extensive vocabulary,' says Stephen. They need a solid grasp of synonyms (words that have the same meaning), antonyms (words that mean the opposite of each other) and plurals, good spelling skills, and strong maths skills. 'A good general knowledge is also needed for verbal reasoning tests,' Stephen adds. Even if your child understands the question and can follow the written directions, if one of the possible words in the answer is unfamiliar, they may trip up.

Why can verbal reasoning be hard to master?

Some children have a knack for verbal reasoning, but for others, it doesn't come so naturally. And it's not just about being 'good at literacy' - children who can read and spell very well may still struggle with some of the code-based questions. Moreover, verbal reasoning isn't a curriculum-based skill, so your child won't be taught the techniques at school, and while they may make sense once they've been explained (and practised), at first glance, they can be baffling.

Children also need to be good at reading questions carefully, and following the directions exactly, which can be an issue for those who tend to rush or skim-read. 'However, research shows that with practice, children can improve their verbal reasoning,' says Stephen.

Helping your child practise verbal reasoning at home

'The best thing you can do to improve your child's verbal reasoning is encourage them to read,' says Stephen. 'Children who read widely have a big head-start, as they're building their vocabulary and general knowledge.'

You can also try the following tips to boost your child's verbal reasoning skills:

Play word games and quizzes, for example, spotting the odd one out from a list of words, giving a synonym or antonym for a word, solving anagrams.

Encourage your child to do crosswords and word searches, and play games like Hangman.

Play word-based family games like Scrabble and Boggle.

Set your child spelling challenges, focusing particularly on commonly misspelt words (there/their/they're) and homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently, like fair and fare).

Become a family of culture vultures, taking your children to museums, shows and exhibitions to build their general knowledge.

To help your child practise verbal and non-verbal reasoning for the Year 7 CATs or the Eleven Plus our Verbal and non-verbal reasoning: an introduction learning pack offers 90 practice questions and answers as well as a general overview of secondary school selection tests.

TheSchoolRun's 11+ Learning Journey is a complete guide to 11+ preparation for children and parents and includes 48 verbal reasoning explanatory worksheets.

You can also download free 11+ vocabulary flashcards to help your child increase their vocabulary.

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Verbal reasoning tests are a key part of most secondary school selection and 11+ exams, as well as Year 7 CATs - but your child won't necessarily be taught the skill at school. We explain just what verbal reasoning involves, and how you can help them prepare for their test.

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Literacy skills help students gain knowledge through reading as well as using media and technology. These skills also help students create knowledge through writing as well as developing media and technology.

Information Literacy

Students need to be able to work effectively with information, using it at all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating). Information literacy involves traditional skills such as reading, researching, and writing; but new ways to read and write have also introduced new skills:

Consuming information: The current excess of information requires students to gain new skills in handling it. When most information came through official publications like books, newspapers, magazines, and television shows, students encountered data that had been prepared by professionals. Now, much information is prepared by amateurs. Some of that work is reliable, but much is not. Students must take on the role of the editor, checking and cross-checking information, watching for signs of bias, datedness, and errors. Students need to look at all information as the product of a communication situation, with a sender, subject, purpose, medium, receiver, and context.

Producing information: In the past, students were mostly consumers of information. When they produced information, it was largely for a single reader-the teacher-and was produced for a grade. It was therefore not an authentic communication situation, and students felt that writing was a purely academic activity. Now writing is one of the main ways students communicate. It has real-world applications and consequences. Students need to understand that what they write can do great good or great harm in the real world, and that how they write determines how powerful their words are. Students need to take on the role of professional writers, learning to be effective and ethical producers of information.

Media Literacy

Media literacy involves understanding the many ways that information is produced and distributed. The forms of media have exploded in the last decade and new media arrive every day:

Students' use of media has far outstripped educational use, and students will continue to adopt new media long before teachers can create curricula about it. It is no longer enough to teach students how books, periodicals, and TV shows work. Students need to learn how to critically analyze and evaluate messages coming to them through any medium.

As with information literacy, the key is to recognize the elements of the communication situation-sender, message (subject and purpose), medium, receiver, and context. These elements are constant regardless of the medium used. By broadening the student's perspective to see all media as part of a larger communication situation, we can equip students to effectively receive and send information in any medium. Students must learn to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each medium and to analyze each message they receive and send.

Technology Literacy

We are living through a technological revolution, with huge changes taking place over brief spans of time. A decade ago, Facebook didn't exist, but now many people could not live without it. The average cellphone is now more powerful than computers from several years ago. We are surrounded by technology, and most of it performs multiple functions. In Growing Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World, Don Tapscott outlines the following eight expectations that students have of technology.

Freedom to express their views, personalities, and identities

Ability to customize and personalize technology to their own tastes

Ability to dig deeper, finding whatever information they want

Honesty in interactions with others and with organizations

Fun to be part of learning, work, and socialization as well as entertainment

Connecting to others and collaborating in everything

Speed and responsiveness in communication and searching for answers

Innovation and change, not settling for familiar technologies but seeking and using what is new and better

As you can see, students expect a great deal out of their technologies. You can help them use technology wisely:

reading Web sites;

using search engines;

using map searches;

accessing videos, podcasts, and feeds;

evaluating Web resources;

researching on the Internet;

e-mailing, chatting, texting, microblogging;

using social sites;

visiting virtual worlds;

blogging and using wikis; and

using message boards, newsgroups, and VOIP (Skype).

By understanding how to evaluate this new information and how to use these new tools to create effective, well-grounded communication, students can harness the power of new technology and be inspired to learn.

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Literacy skills help students gain knowledge through reading as well as using media and technology. These skills also help students create knowledge through writing as well as developing media and technology. Students need to be able to work effectively with information, using it at all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).

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Karen Hollowell has been teaching since 1994. She has taught English/literature and social studies in grades 7-12 and taught kindergarten for nine years. She currently teaches fourth grade reading/language and social studies. Hollowell earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Mississippi and her Master of Arts in elementary education from Alcorn State University.

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What Is a Diagnostic Reading Assessment? | Synonym

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Karen Hollowell has been teaching since 1994. She has taught English/literature and social studies in grades 7-12 and taught kindergarten for nine years. She currently teaches fourth grade reading/language and social studies. Hollowell earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Mississippi and her Master of Arts in elementary education from Alcorn State University.

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Break down comprehension strategies by subskills.

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Break down comprehension strategies by subskills.

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Break down comprehension strategies by subskills

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What is VERBAL REASONING? What does VERBAL REASONING mean? VERBAL REASONING meaning & explanation

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Early Literacy Skills - Everything Parents Need to Know

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Diagnostic Assessment: Examples & Overview

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Diagnostic Assessment: Examples & Overview

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Diagnostic Assessment: Examples & Overview