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RL1.7 is one standard that really helps prepare students for college and career readiness. The standard allows students practice evaluating and analyzing pictures or details in a story to develop their understanding of the character, setting, or events in a story. With this standard, the students aren't just trying to understand what is happening in the illustration, they are analyzing it and evaluating how it adds to their comprehension of the story. When the students engage in higher order thinking like analyzing and evaluating they increase their ability to understand the characters, setting, and events in a story.

The lesson image is of a play about Charlotte's Web, and I really like it because it reminds me how acting out a story can help students understand. Another way the can learn more about the story's character, setting, and events is by analyzing the illustrations. This lesson is designed to help the students learn to analyze the illustrations and add to what the text tells them in a story. Charlotte's Web is a great story to do this, and I read have read the text to the class in a previous read aloud that I do in the afternoon. Most of my reading lessons are in the morning and we analyze the pictures of the webs Charlotte spins with the words in it. The pictures of the webs add to the reader's understanding of both characters, Wilbur and Charlotte. Not only do we learn about them, but we also learn about their relationship.
Lesson Overview
Most of the lesson allows students to work in small collaborative groups, and this adds to the development of their speaking and listening skills. The groups are mixed in their ability and based on oral reading fluency scores on DIBELS. In order to organize the group member roles I like to call one member the peanut butter partner and the other the jelly. When I notice that one partner is not participating I might ask the peanut butter partner to teach the jelly in the next conversation. Sometimes I also like to ask the specific partners to do the reading or writing. It is just a fun way to organize activities instead of calling the students by name.

The lesson allows for transitions every twenty minutes, because this is about the maximum time my students can stay focused. We start out in the lounge, then we move the desks for guided practice, later we move to the center tables for partner work, and the lesson ends back at the lounge. During each transition the students chant the lesson goal, because it keeps them focused and manages behavior as they move.
Introductory Activity
This part of the lesson is when I want to get my students excited about learning and engaged in the lesson. To do this I show the lesson image on the Promethean board and ask the students to discuss what the web tells us about Wilbur that we might not understand just by reading the words. As the class discusses, I listen to see what kind of ideas they have, and this assessment gives me an idea of how much support my students are going to need in the lesson. After they finish talking, I share what I heard and, I say, I think it really shows a connection and strong friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur, because she wrote that he is Some Pig to save his life. This really shows that Wilbur and Charlotte have a strong friendship. It is important to push them to this deeper level of analysis (over just something like, It shows what Charlotte wrote about Wilbur) in order to tackle the level of depth that the standard expects.

Now it is time for me to explain that we will be reading a few excerpts from Charlotte's Web and analyzing how the illustrations help describe the characters. Then the students chant the lesson goal. I can understand the characters by analyzing the illustrations.

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RL1.7 is one standard that really helps prepare students for college and career readiness. The standard allows students practice evaluating and analyzing pictures or details in a story to develop their understanding of the character, setting, or events in a story.

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Just as we did with the first and second events, we wanted to practice speaking and writing in complete sentences. I turned to the page in the flipchart where we wrote our next set of sentences. I focused on the first sentence stem. I said, " The first stem says, Camilla's stripes turned red, white, and blue and she broke out in stars because ____________. I had Person 1 talk to their partner. I circulated around the room, listening to make sure children were speaking in complete sentences and not making any syntactical errors. Once students wer done talking, I gave them time to finish their sentence stems.

After they were finished writing the first sentence I said, " Let's look at the second stem on the board. It says, Camilla kept changing faster than you can change channels on a TV because ____________. This time it was Person 2's turn to talk. They practiced speaking to their partner. I circulated around the room listening for syntactical errors. Once students were done speaking, they finished their sentence stems.

I have included a video of several of the different parts of the lesson as a resource in this section so you can get an idea of the flow of the lesson. After the reading of the story, the speaking with partners and the writing, time does add up but the students stay engaged and on task.

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Cause and Effect with "A Bad Case of Stripes" Day One

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Students will really be writing to sources with this lesson. They will write about cause and effects in a multi-flow map and then write sentences to explain the cause and effect relationsh Plan your 60-minute lesson in English / Language Arts or Reading with helpful tips from Valerie Gresser

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I started today's lesson by reminding students of yesterday's lesson. I said, "Yesterday we started to read our story and we discussed the cause and effects in the story. We are going to continue that work today."

I continued reading the story. I read to the part of the story where Camilla had tried all sorts of remedies and she turned out all tree-like. I turned to the page on the flipchart where it said the specialists gave Camilla a bottle of different colored pills. I said, " The event is that the specialists gave her a bottle of different colored pills. What is the effect of this? It was Person 1's turn to talk. The students discussed what the effect was and all agreed that Camilla turned into a big pill. I gave the students about 3 minutes to write this in the effect box.

I turned to the next page on the flipchart and said, " The event is that Camilla tried all sorts of remedies. What is the effect of this? It was Person 2's turn to talk. All the students shared and then the class agreed that Camilla turned into a creature with roots, feathers, leaves, and berries. Again, I gave students about 3 minutes to write this in their effect boxes.

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Cause and Effect with "A Bad Case of Stripes" Day Two

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This is the second lesson in a two day lesson. Students will continue writing to sources in this lesson. They will write about cause and effects in a multi-flow map and then write sentences to explain the cause and effect relationships in this story.

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Now I move the class to the center tables where they work to be able to analyze the illustrations and look for added meaning about the characters, setting, and events. Now, we have already added some of our whole group analysis to a chart. But, the students are going to deepen their understanding by adding more and different information to their own chart with a partner. Using a chart helps my students organize their ideas when analyzing pictures.

I did point out in the guided practice that these are pictures of the desert. Then I project the pictures one at a time on the Promethean board. The students use the chart to add their own interpretation of the character setting, and events based on the illustration. The chart is basically a piece of paper folded down the middle and then folded horizontally four times. This makes for two columns and five rows.

The first image ( The Sign Painter Picture 1) is where the boy meets the sign painter. It really allows the students to think about his expression and what it means. Then they determine the setting by looking at the illustrations. The next page ( The Sign Painter Picture 2) is even better because the truck shows an event, and we can determine that they are going somewhere. The other pictures we use are in the resources ( The Sign Painter Picture 3, The Sign Painter Picture 4).

I walk around after I project each picture and help my students get started analyzing the illustrations.

I just ask:

Picture 1: What does it tell you that the boy wanted a job and is willing to paint signs? ( He needed money.) How does the boy feel? (He seems sad. The colors are not bright or exciting.) How do you know? (His expressions.)

Picture 2:Where did they go? (They traveled through the desert. A lonely, isolated, and calm place.)

Picture 3:What kind of person did they work for? (Maybe the employer was wealthy. His house was bid, he wore white, and drove a fancy car. It costs alot to pay a person to paint signs.)

Picture 4: What kind of place were they painting signs for? (Maybe a fancy town or resort.)

Then they are off filling in their graphic organizer.

I also make a word bank ( Word Bank), because the students want to use words they can't spell.

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Now I move the class to the center tables where they work to be able to analyze the illustrations and look for added meaning about the characters, setting, and events. Now, we have already added some of our whole group analysis to a chart.

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The standard RL1.7 is about analyzing the details and illustrations in a text to add a deeper layer of meaning to the understanding of the characters, setting, and events. By creating experiences for students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of a story by analyzing the illustrations, I am engaging my class in higher order thinking which is one skill they will need to be prepared for college or a career. College and career readiness are two areas that Common Core provides opportunities for students to grow intellectually. In this lesson, students move beyond understanding what the text is telling them and move into interpreting the meaning of the text.
Lesson Overview
This lesson creates opportunities for the students to learn about and describe the characters, setting, and events. I have pre-selected specific pages to analyze for the students to describe the story. Students can gather deep understandings of the characters, setting, and events from a few pages instead of every single page. Plus, it concentrates their focus instead of providing them with so much that they can easily get distracted in the details.

The text I use in the guided practice is called Snow in Jerusalem, and we analyze a few pages together. Then the students analyze Chrysanthemum with their partner to gather an understanding of the characters, setting, and events. In Snow in Jerusalem two boys discover they are caring for the same cat and she has kittens. But, in Chrysanthemum a little girl learns to embrace the uniqueness of her name. These are both great stories to dive into character development on a deep level, which is why they are great for RL.1.7.

The students work in small collaborative groups (I call them Peanut Butter Jelly Partners) throughout the lesson, and we Transition about every twenty minutes to keep the lesson pacing fresh and exciting.
Beginning Activity
First, I show the students the lesson image and ask them to describe the setting. I am listening to assess their ability to describe a setting. I am hoping they say it looks like a desert, because there is not much grass. But, I listen closely, so I can assess their ability to analyze the setting. Then I share that we will learn more about describing characters, the setting, and events in a story by using the illustrations. To engage the entire class I ask the class to echo the goal after me. I say, " I can analyze the illustrations to add to my understanding of the character, setting, and events."

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The standard RL1.7 is about analyzing the details and illustrations in a text to add a deeper layer of meaning to the understanding of the characters, setting, and events. By creating experiences for students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of a story by analyzing the illustrations, I am engaging my class in higher order thinking which is one skill they will need to be prepared for college or a career.

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Barefoot World Atlas - Barefoot Books has transformed its World Atlas into a phenomenal learning tool! The app, brought to you by Touch Press, has been getting a lot of press and we wanted to see for ourselves what all the fuss is about. We learned that this interactive atlas is the result of a year-long partnership between award-winning children's publisher Barefoot Books and Touch Press. Touch Press is behind six previous Apps of the Week, including Gems and Jewels, Solar System (for Japan and Germany), X is for X-ray, and March of the Dinosaurs. Geography has been put on the back burner in some schools, while all the focus has been given to Math, Science, and English Language Arts. Teachers and parents of younger learners needing a more interactive hands-on way to explore and absorb important knowledge about the world around them will find everything they need with this one app. Barefoot World Atlas is a brilliant creation. It's an information-rich resource for the iPad that engages learners of all ages and makes sure that you are immersed in the culture of every area you visit, as well as all the senses. I swear the students got goosebumps when we visited the Artic and yes, you could almost smell the scent of the differing geographical locations. The music changes with every swipe of a new location and really gives one the feeling of being right there along with the indigenous people. * an enchanting interactive globe that children can spin, zoom and fly around * globe navigation by regions, emphasizing the way people have been shaped by the characteristics and resources of the land * hundreds of animated illustrations by artist David Dean representing culture, people, and nature * extensive written text and spoken narration by BBC presenter and geographer Nick Crane * hundreds of carefully chosen photographs * an evocative soundscape with ever-changing music and effects * 3D rotations of historical objects from the Royal Geographical Society The vibrant interface encourages exploration and learning can go in literally any direction. You can flit from one icon to the next to pursue your personal interests, as well as an adventure into the unknown. Any icon can be saved to your favorites list for easy reference, and selecting regions or countries lets you learn more about their climate, natural resources, native peoples, indigenous animals, and modes of transportation. The bottom line..... Barefoot World Atlas needs to be on every iPad that is used by children. It is like having a Jr. set of world books in one condensed space to promote educating kids about geography in a FUN, exciting and all-embracing way. This app that will have staying power on any mobile device. Splurge - this app is worth every penny!

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Barefoot World Atlas - Barefoot Books has transformed its World Atlas into a phenomenal learning tool! The app, brought to you by Touch Press, has been getting a lot of press and we wanted to see for ourselves what all the fuss is about.

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Nov 11, 2021

There are many ways to help with climate change but what if your idea could win you a global prize, and help bring awareness to a problem? Five young thinkers were chosen as the finalists of this year's Children's Climate Prize for coming up with innovative ideas to help planet Earth. Take a look at what each of these finalists came up w... Keep Reading

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Nov 11, 2021 There are many ways to help with climate change but what if your idea could win you a global prize, and help bring awareness to a problem? Five young thinkers were chosen as the finalists of this year's Children's Climate Prize for coming up with innovative ideas to help planet Earth.

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We are dedicated to helping young and emerging readers with interactive experiences that encourage reading and story exploration. The stories engage your child to learn about language, reading and spelling through playful interaction, loveable characters and music. We understand that each child's learning experience is different; our goal is to help them build a relationship with vocabulary and comprehension by letting them explore and interact with each story. Wanderful apps are full of ways to learn through exposure, repetition and context. We strive to make each App a truly "Wanderful" experience - full of surprise, whimsy, and humor, with an invitation to explore because EVERTHING inside every storybook is ALIVE. Here are some ideas how you can use Wanderful interactive storybooks with your family:

Play with the individual words:

Every word of every Wanderful storybook is recorded twice: once for story-telling, and again for each individual word. Emerging readers like to tap the words in order to "build" the sentence themselves. Older children like to tap the words out of order making their own silly sentences. Make a game of finding words or making your own simple sentences.

Read together or just let them play

Even though our Wanderful interactive storybooks allow children to read and play successfully by themselves, it's also enriching to read and share stories together. With our storybooks, you can read them aloud with your kids. And you can also explore the interactive elements together. We find that children are very eager to show what they can do, and share their favorites with you.

"No matter how you get them, it's always a Wanderful gift." ( view video here )

Roxanne Vargas , Host of NBC6 in the Mix - Miami, Florida

"It is my great pleasure to inform you that your product has been awarded the Editor's Choice Award as printed in the latest edition of Children's Technology Review." (see the award here) - Warren Buckleitner

Award given to: Harry and the Haunted House App

"Everything I touch is interactive... one of my favorite things is that this is bilingual." - Laurie Schacht, Toy Insider Mom on ABC Money Matters

From Fans of Wanderful's Apps

"Now parents, teachers and developmentally challenged children around the world can share the magic of Living Books as Wanderful Apps. Most of the great products have been released and they are working on more. It is so exciting to my husband and me. We can't thank Wanderful enough for making this happen!"

Becky and Jon Kirwan

Damascus, OR

"This is a really cute and relate-able story, with some great interactive features. It includes a fully functional Spanish version -any text in the illustrations change to Spanish too! "

- Cynthia Chiong, A Matter Of App, reviewing Little Monster

"I'm so excited that these favorites, these best examples of what children's software can be, will be coming to a new generation of emerging readers."

Reyne Rice, Toy Trend Expert, Consultant, Journalist & Media Spokesperson

"Parents & grandparents who remember the original magic of the Living Books, and new parents and gift-givers, who will be introduced to them, will all be thrilled to share these interactive storybooks with the children in their lives".

James Oppenheim, JamesGames Click here to see the full story

"I am excited to see these engaging interactive versions of my books available to kids everywhere once again. Thanks Wanderful!"

Marc Brown, Author of the Arthur series of books

"I'm glad they're making these products accessible. Children learn through different modalities. There is research indicating that children with autism have learned successfully through products displayed on tablets. "It's a good idea to make learning more accessible to children. If it's fun and interesting for them to learn, so much the better." Stevanne Auerbach, PhD, AKA "Dr. Toy" Click here to see the full story

Classroom Activities Guides

Classroom Activities guides are available as an in-app purchase, click to download the free preview

Applications that teach children about Language

The Wanderful Interactive storybooks are being released in new languages and language combinations. Language as a central part of what makes these apps special - including the ability to instantly switch between the languages in each app. They are now available in the following full language versions:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL LANGUAGE OPTIONS

UK English, French, German, and Japanese

© 2017 Wanderful, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Living Books is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, used with permission. Arthur, © Marc Brown Studios, All Rights Reserved. Little Monster © Mercer Mayer, All Rights Reserved.

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We are dedicated to helping young and emerging readers with interactive experiences that encourage reading and story exploration. The stories engage your child to learn about language, reading and spelling through playful interaction, loveable characters and music.

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Students in first grade have learned the basics of reading and are starting to read well on their own. It's important for teachers to ensure students also understand what they're reading, so they use reading comprehension tests and worksheets. Use these reading comprehension worksheets for lessons, practice, or tests.

First grade students reading comprehension test

Printable 1st Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets

Reading comprehension worksheets for 1st grade feature a short passage and questions about that passage. Click on the image of the worksheet PDF with answer key to download and print it using the troubleshooting guide for help.

1st Grade Reading Comprehension Multiple Choice Worksheet

Toward the beginning of the school year, first graders will need more guidance with understanding reading comprehension. This reading comprehension worksheet includes five multiple choice questions, making it easier for students to identify the answers.

Multiple Choice Reading Story Worksheet Click Image to View and Download PDF

Reading Comprehension Worksheet for Grade 1 With Questions

Practice 1st grade reading comprehension with questions on this blank first grade reading story worksheet. You can use the worksheet for lessons as a group with any first grade read-aloud book or for independent reading with any book the student chooses.

Reading Comprehension Practice Test Click Image to View and Download PDF

1st Grade Reading Comprehension Test

This 1st grade reading comprehension practice test includes multiple choice, true or false, and open-ended questions to gauge the student's understanding of the text.

Reading Comprehension Practice Test Click Image to View and Download PDF

Where to Find 1st Grade Reading Comprehension Tests

Many educational websites offer free online reading comprehension stories for kids. At the first grade level, you can use worksheets as reading comprehension examinations too. To make them feel a bit more "test" like, combine a few to make a longer exam or cross out questions if you feel like there are too many.

There are two reading comprehension tests first graders can take online from Pearson, " Saturday with Grandpa" and " How They Grow." Kids will answer three questions about each story online.

K5 Learning offers 6 free printable leveled reader reading comprehension worksheets you can use as tests.

If you want Common Core aligned tests, K12 Reader has over 35 free reading comprehension worksheets for first grade that use rhyming words and focus on single word families.

Make Your Own Reading Comprehension Tests

Ready-made worksheets and tests are not always going to suit the unique needs of your first grade classroom. Use these tips and techniques to create your own reading comprehension tests and worksheets when needed.

Create a Theme for the Test

As you can see from the free worksheets and tests, having a strong central focus for the sheet is common. Kids respond well to animals, holidays, and other subjects that connect to their own lives.

Prepare Students for the Test

There is a strong chance that first grade students have never taken a test before, and they might be overwhelmed by the thought of having to do so. Go through several reading comprehension worksheets in class with them, so that they know exactly what to expect.

Mix Up the Type of Questions

Use different types of questions on the test such as multiple choice, true and false, and open-ended. They should not all be summary questions that ask the student to regurgitate the facts.

You can ask questions that focus on a very basic analysis or ones that ask the students to make inferences about the subject matter.

Include Some Illustrations on the Test

Images and pictures can give students some basic clues about the answers to the questions or they might simply be for fun, decorative purposes. Either way, they make the test less intimidating.

Know the Needs and Abilities of Your Students

As with any type of activity, lesson, or examination in the classroom, you need to evaluate the specific needs of your students when using worksheets and tests.

For example, if you teach two first grade classes, and one is much more advanced than the other, consider coming up with two different tests so that both groups of students are challenged within their abilities.

Remember What You Read

Reading comprehension worksheets and tests are only two of the tools you can use to help first graders master reading comprehension. Check out these fun reading activities and see which ones you could tailor to first grade reading comprehension lessons.

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1st Grade Reading Comprehension Tests & Worksheets

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Students in first grade have learned the basics of reading and are starting to read well on their own. It's important for teachers to ensure students also understand what they're reading, so they use reading comprehension tests and worksheets. Use these reading comprehension worksheets for lessons, practice, or tests.

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How do you know how well your students are doing? It's important to take time regularly to assess their progress, so you can adjust instruction as needed and help ensure that no student slips through the cracks.

As students progress from kindergarten through third grade, they should be steadily developing the skills they need to become proficient readers. Students need to learn and then master their foundational skills (e.g., decoding individual words) while gradually developing the ability to understand and critique increasingly complex texts.

The Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted (or adapted) by most states, identify what students should know by the end of each grade (K-3) in order to become successful readers. You can find here a set of grade-by-grade charts, based on the standards, that provide a useful benchmark for the skills that, ideally, all of your students should master.

Monitoring student progress

To monitor student progress, schools and individual teachers conduct different types of assessments with students in Grades K-3:

Screening assessments are given to all students at the start of the school year to determine which students are at risk of struggling with reading. They are not used to diagnose specific skill gaps; rather, they help to identify children who need diagnostic assessments, as well as children who may require supplemental intervention. Screening assessments should be relatively fast and efficient to administer. One type of useful screening assessment involves curriculum-based measures (CBMs). Examples include DIBELS Next or Aimsweb.

Diagnostic assessments are used to assess specific skills or components of reading such as phonemic awareness, phonics skills, and fluency. The results of diagnostic assessments inform instruction and intervention. Diagnostic assessments can be formal standardized tests of children's component reading and language abilities or informal measures such as criterion-referenced tests and informal reading inventories. Not all children need this kind of in-depth reading assessment, which is most important for struggling and at-risk readers.

Norm-referenced assessments are formal assessments, often used as diagnostic tools. The score compares the student's skills to a defined population used in standardizing the test (i.e., how did this student perform on these tasks compared to other students in the same grade or age range). Examples of these tests include the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test. Typically these kinds of tests should not be administered more than once a year.

Criterion-referenced assessments are both formal and informal assessments, and are also used as diagnostic tools. The score compares the student's skills to a defined set of skills and a goal (criterion) for mastery. These assessments are administered before instruction and after instruction to measure a student's skill growth. An example of this type of test is the Core Phonics Survey. Usually these kinds of tests can be administered more than once a year.

Outcome assessments, also called high stakes assessments, are given to all students in a grade. They measure students' skills against grade-level expectations. Outcome assessments are used to make decisions about students, teachers, a school, or even an entire school system.

Progress monitoring assessments measure a student's overall progress during the school year or progress toward acquiring specific skills that have been taught. Examples of these kinds of measures include curriculum-based measures (CBMs), criterion-referenced tests, and informal measures such as reading inventories. These tests can be given more than once a year and, depending on the assessment, sometimes quite frequently. For instance, many CBMs could be given on a weekly basis if desired.

As the list above suggests, a single assessment can sometimes serve more than one purpose or fit in more than one category. For example, a CBM such as DIBELS Next can be used as part of universal screening at the beginning of the school year to help determine which children are at risk in reading. It can also be re-administered later in the school year to help gauge a child's overall progress in reading.

Video: Introduction to Reading Assessment

This podcast from the University of Florida Literacy Institute provides a brief overview of basic concepts related to reading assessment.

Identifying students' skill gaps to target specific weaknesses

Starting in first grade, most students are given assessments of their reading comprehension. These assessments are important, but they provide teachers with only a global view of a child's reading ability. To provide useful instruction and intervention, teachers must be able to target instruction to a student's specific weaknesses.

For instance, two first-graders might obtain the same low reading comprehension score, but if one student's difficulty is mainly in the area of decoding and the other student's main weakness involves limited vocabulary knowledge, then those students will need different types of instruction to improve their overall reading comprehension.

The simple view of reading

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) offers one useful way to think about reading and the skill gaps students might have. SVR is widely referenced in scientific studies of reading. According to SVR, good reading comprehension requires two broad types of abilities: good word recognition and good oral language comprehension.

Both of these domains - word recognition and oral language comprehension - incorporate other specific abilities. For example:

Word recognition encompasses:

Phonological and phonemic awareness

Phonics skills (both knowledge of letter sounds and decoding unfamiliar words)

Automaticity of word recognition

Reading of common phonetically irregular words

Oral language comprehension encompasses:

Oral vocabulary (including morphology, i.e., understanding meaningful word parts such as common roots)

Background knowledge

Sentence (syntactic) comprehension

Pragmatic language (use of language in a social context, including subtler aspects of language usage such as understanding sarcasm or idioms)

[Note: these are key examples, not an exhaustive list.]

Students need both types of abilities to read and comprehend well - just one will not do. For instance, children who have excellent language comprehension, with the ability to understand sophisticated stories read aloud by the teacher, still will not have good reading comprehension if they cannot read individual words.

Conversely, a child who reads words accurately and automatically but who does not have good oral comprehension will also not have good reading comprehension. This latter type of child might be able to decode a sentence perfectly, such as The gorgeous lady with the flowing white robe and the golden crown was confined to the attic of the castle. However, if the child does not know the meanings of words such as gorgeous, confined, and attic, or if he or she cannot understand the somewhat complex syntax of the sentence, then reading comprehension will nevertheless be impaired.

This article provides an excellent discussion of the Simple View of Reading and what it means for good reading instruction.

Children who can read grade-appropriate passages accurately, with ease and appropriate speed, as well as with good oral expression, generally have good language comprehension as well. Other cognitive abilities, such as working memory and executive function, also influence reading comprehension. Classroom teachers do not typically assess these other cognitive abilities as part of a reading assessment, but they can be important to consider in individual cases, such as when a student has a disability that affects reading.

Severe weaknesses in either word recognition or oral language comprehension may require assessments conducted by special educators, reading specialists, or psychologists (e.g., using Woodcock Johnson IV or the WIAT-III). Teachers who are concerned about particular students should confer with specialists and with their school's administration.

Determining the profile of reading difficulty and identifying specific skill gaps

The Simple View of Reading has been used to identify four profiles of young learners: a profile for students who are at or above grade level and three common profiles of students with reading difficulties. Among others, Catts and his colleagues (e.g., Catts, Adlof, & Weismer, 2006), Moats (2006), and Spear-Swerling (2015a, 2015b) have discussed these profiles:

Students who have good or adequate language comprehension and good or adequate decoding. Children with this profile are most likely at or above grade level in reading.

Students who have good language comprehension but poor word recognition/decoding skills.This profile is termed specific word recognition difficulties (SWRD), because the child's reading problems are specific to word recognition, not language comprehension.

Students who have poor language comprehension but good word recognition/decoding skills. This profile is called specific comprehension difficulties (SCD), because the child's reading problems are specific to comprehension and do not involve reading words.

Students who have weaknesses in both language comprehension and word recognition/decoding skills. This profile is often called mixed reading difficulties (MRD), because the reading problems include both word recognition and comprehension.

When teaching struggling readers, identifying the individual student's profile can help insure that intervention strategies are effective:

Students with the second profile, good language comprehension but poor word recognition (SWRD), typically need phonics intervention. For most of these children, effective phonics intervention, if accompanied by adequate levels of fluency, should enable children to achieve grade-appropriate reading comprehension

Students with the third profile, poor language comprehension but good word recognition and decoding (SCD), do not need phonics intervention. They require comprehension interventions that address their specific needs in the domain of comprehension (e.g., vocabulary, background knowledge, inferencing).

Students with the last profile, weaknesses in both language comprehension and word recognition/decoding (MRD), require both phonics intervention and intervention addressing their specific comprehension needs.

Teachers can use the Simple View of Reading to identify the child's profile of reading difficulty. From there, the teacher should conduct more fine-grained assessments to determine the child's specific skills and how to target instruction.

At each grade level, certain types of difficulties will likely be common, which means that children can be grouped together for differentiation of instruction in small, flexible groups. For example, in a typical third-grade class, difficulties with word-recognition and decoding would often involve decoding two-syllable or multisyllabic words, and children with these needs could be grouped together. Children with grade-appropriate decoding but comprehension needs involving vocabulary and background knowledge (another common weakness) might be in a second group.

Children with needs in both areas could participate in both groups. This plan might not meet the needs of all children, such as those who are very far behind in decoding, but it would provide helpful differentiation of instruction for most children in a class.

Profiles of three struggling readers

Millie

Consider a third grader, Millie, who eagerly participates in classroom discussions. She can recall details from videos and passages read aloud. She correctly uses new vocabulary in speech. But Millie's oral text reading is not fluent. She reads slowly, needs to laboriously sound out many words, and lacks prosody (i.e., the ability to read aloud with expression). She also lacks grade-appropriate spelling skills, although she can spell phonetically. For example, Millie spells the word thought as thot. How would the teacher categorize her skill gap?

Does Millie have grade-appropriate language comprehension? Yes, she appears to have strong language comprehension; she follows conversations, remembers details, and uses vocabulary correctly in speech.

Does Millie have grade-appropriate word recognition? No. The description suggests a lack of reading fluency related to word recognition that is not automatic. Millie is able to spell phonetically. That means she has strong phonological awareness, as well as some basic phonics skills (e.g., knowledge of single consonant and short vowel spellings). For example, she correctly hears the sounds in the word thought. Her spelling difficulties suggest she has weak orthographic skills; that is, Millie lacks knowledge about common letter patterns used in spelling. She may also have difficulty reading multisyllabic words, which require knowledge about many common letter patterns including those connected to roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
Millie has the first profile of reading difficulty, SWRD (specific word recognition difficulties), involving grade-appropriate oral language comprehension but difficulties in the domain of word recognition.
Millie's teacher should assess her ability to read and spell words with common letter patterns expected at her grade level, in order to determine how to target instruction for her. She should also look for ways to improve Millie's reading fluency, such as re-reading of familiar text.

Data for Millie from a standardized reading measure with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 21.06 might look like this:

Notice that all the scores are below the mean of 50 except for listening comprehension. The listening comprehension score documents Millie's strong language comprehension skills. Listening comprehension does not require any skills in decoding. The other scores, which require adequate decoding, demonstrate Millie's poor decoding and word recognition skills.

Curtis

Consider Curtis, another third grader. Curtis reads third-grade text accurately and fluently, but he rarely participates in classroom discussions. He struggles to answer questions, especially inferential questions. Curtis's teacher has noticed that he often does not know the meanings of words typically known by third graders. She has observed these problems in Curtis's own reading, during class discussions, and also in Curtis's writing. Although Curtis has grade-appropriate spelling skills, his word choice in his writing is a significant weakness. How would the teacher categorize his skill gap?

Does Curtis have strong language comprehension? No, he struggles with following a conversation and answering inferential questions. The description of Curtis suggests that vocabulary weaknesses may account for at least some of his comprehension problems. Lack of background knowledge, often associated with vocabulary limitations, may also be an issue. His difficulties with inferencing could be connected to these weaknesses.

Does Curtis have grade-appropriate word recognition? Yes, his grade-appropriate oral reading fluency indicates that he does not have problems with word recognition. His grade-appropriate spelling also supports this idea.
Curtis has the second profile of reading difficulty, SCD (specific comprehension difficulties), involving poor language comprehension coupled with good word recognition and decoding.
Curtis requires more in-depth assessments of specific language comprehension skills such as vocabulary and background knowledge. Because Curtis's word recognition and text fluency are not an issue, these aspects of Curtis's comprehension could be evaluated in the context of his reading as well as his listening. For example, his teacher could examine Curtis's performance on different types of questions during an informal reading inventory or during classroom discussions.

Data for Curtis from a standardized reading measure with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 might look like this:

Note that all of Curtis' scores for anything related to language comprehension (listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary) are below the mean of 100. The scores that require adequate decoding (word attack, word identification, and spelling) are at or above the mean. The data support the profile of poor language comprehension but good word recognition and decoding.

Bella

Consider Bella, a talkative first grader whose intervention teacher says she reads accurately. Bella can retell stories and answer questions during discussions. In class, Bella reads many words sound by sound, then looks at the teacher and says the whole word as if asking a question. At the end of the paragraph, Bella has no memory of what she has read even though she has read every word accurately.

Does Bella have strong language comprehension? Yes, she can understand discussions, and she can retell stories. She engages in discussions during class.

Does Bella have strong decoding? Are her orthographic skills strong? She is capable of associating the sounds with the letter patterns. This is not the area of primary weakness. She has weak phonological awareness, likely at the phonemic awareness level. She has to hear herself say the sounds in order to blend them into a word. Even then, she is unsure if she has done this correctly. This is so effortful that she exhausts her working memory reading the words. She cannot comprehend what she reads because of the effort required to sound out words. Phonological awareness should be assessed to find where instruction should start.

Summary

By looking at reading errors through the lens of the Simple View of Reading, a teacher can categorize the area of weakness. From there a teacher can administer skill-level assessments to find the student's lowest level of skill. That is where instruction should start.

Seeking help

While assessments can help identify a student's skill gaps, there will be times when the teacher needs additional support. For example, language comprehension skill gaps may be as simple as building a student's vocabulary, or they may be far more complex. A student's decoding issues may appear to be simple phonemic awareness gaps but prove difficult to strengthen.

As such, it is important not to wait but to seek help for that student as quickly as possible. Seeking help may start by asking fellow teachers for advice or may require referral to a specialist. This will vary by school and school district.

It is critical, however, to act quickly. Students who struggle with reading fall behind grade level content at an alarming rate. When a student does not respond to intervention almost from the start, teachers should err on the side of seeking additional support.

Foundational reading skills and comprehension benchmarks: what children need to know

The following charts provide a concise summary of what students should know by the end of each grade (K-3) in order to become successful readers. The charts are derived from the Common Core State Standards and represent a useful benchmark for the skills that all students need. They include foundational reading skills as well as broader comprehension benchmarks. Without foundational skills, reading comprehension cannot occur. It is critical for elementary teachers to address these foundational skills and for children with poor skills to receive needed interventions.

References: profiles of struggling readers

Catts, H.W., Adlof, S.M., & Weismer, S.E. (2006). Language deficits in poor comprehenders: A case for the simple view of reading. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49(2), 278-293.

Catts, H.W., Compton, D.L., Tomblin, J.B., & Bridges, M.S. (2012). Prevalence and nature of late-emerging poor readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 166-181.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2015a). The power of RTI and reading profiles: A blueprint for solving reading problems. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2015b). Common types of reading problems and how to help children who have them. The Reading Teacher, 69(5), 513-522.

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How do you know how well your students are doing? It's important to take time regularly to assess their progress, so you can adjust instruction as needed and help ensure that no student slips through the cracks. As students progress from kindergarten through third grade, they should be steadily developing the skills they need to become proficient readers.

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First Grade Reading Comprehension Assessment & Worksheets | TpT

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Browse first grade reading comprehension assessment resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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The ability to read is one of the most powerful tools teachers and parents can give students. Literacy is strongly correlated with future economic and professional success.

Illiteracy, on the other hand, exacts a steep price. The National Center for Education Statistics notes that 43 percent of adults with the lowest reading levels live in poverty, and according to the National Institute for Literacy, 70 percent of people on welfare have extremely low literacy. Furthermore, 72 percent of children of parents with low literacy will themselves have low literacy, and are more likely to perform poorly in school and drop out.

Early and elementary education offers a key opportunity to break this cycle of economic hardship. And while the mechanics of reading and writing are essential building blocks, reading comprehension allows students to move beyond decoding and into understanding and enjoyment.

The easiest way to explain reading comprehension is to put a reader in the position of someone who is "deciphering" letters and words rather than comprehending (attaching meaning to) them.

Fæder ure
ðu ðe eart on heofenum
si ðin nama gehalgod
to-becume ðin rice
geweorþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofenum.
Urne ge dæghwamlican hlaf syle us to-deag
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgifaþ urum gyltendum
ane ne gelæde ðu us on costnunge
ac alys us of yfle.

Using your knowledge base of phonetic sounds, you might be able to "read" the text, but you would not understand what you'd just read. You most certainly would not recognize it as The Lord's Prayer.

What about the following sentence?

Fox grape grey shoe on land title base.

You may know each word and its meaning, but that doesn't give the sentence meaning.

Reading comprehension involves three distinct components: processing text (sounding out the syllables to decode the words), understanding what was read, and making connections between the text and what you already know.

Vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension are two vital elements of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge refers to understanding individual words. If a reader doesn't understand the words he is reading, he won't understand the text as a whole.

Because vocabulary knowledge is essential to reading comprehension, children should be exposed to a rich vocabulary and should always be learning new words. Parents and teachers can help by defining potentially unfamiliar words that students will encounter in texts and teaching students to use contextual clues to understand the meaning of new words.

Text comprehension builds on vocabulary knowledge by allowing the reader to combine the meanings of the individual words to understand the overall text. If you've ever read a complicated legal document, a challenging book, or the previous example of a nonsensical sentence, you can understand the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. Understanding the meaning of most of the words does not necessarily translate into understanding the text as a whole.

Text comprehension relies on the reader making connections with what he's reading.

Most standardized tests include sections that assess reading comprehension. These assessments focus on identifying the main idea of a passage, understanding vocabulary in context, making inferences, and identifying the author's purpose.

A student might read a passage such as the following about dolphins.

Dolphins are aquatic mammals (not fish) well-known for their intellect, gregarious nature, and acrobatic abilities. Like other mammals, they are warm-blooded, give birth to live young, feed their babies milk, and breathe air through their lungs. Dolphins have a streamlined body, a pronounced beak, and a blowhole. They swim by moving their tail up and down to propel themselves forward.
A female dolphin is called a cow, a male is a bull, and the babies are calves. Dolphins are carnivores that eat marine life such as fish and squid. They have great eyesight and use this along with echolocation to move about in the ocean and locate and identify objects around them.
Dolphins communicate with clicks and whistles. They develop their own personal whistle, which is distinct from other dolphins'. Mother dolphins whistle to their babies frequently after birth so that the calves learn to recognize their mother's whistle.

After reading the passage, students are asked to answer questions based on what they read to demonstrate their understanding of the passage. Young students might be expected to understand from the text that dolphins are mammals that live in the ocean. They eat fish and communicate with clicks and whistles.

Older students might be asked to apply information gleaned from the passage to facts they already know. They could be asked to infer the meaning of the term carnivore from the text, identify what dolphins and cattle have in common (being identified as a cow, bull, or calf) or how a dolphin's whistle is similar to a human fingerprint (each is distinct to the individual).

There are several ways to evaluate a student's reading comprehension skills. One method is to use a formal assessment, like the example above, with reading passages followed by questions about the passage.

Another method is to use informal assessments. Ask students to tell you about what they read or retell the story or event in their own words. Put students in discussion groups and listen to what they have to say about the book, watching for areas of confusion and students who are not participating.

Ask students for a written response to the text, such as journaling, identifying their favorite scene, or listing the top 3 to 5 facts they learned from the text.

One indicator that a student is struggling with reading comprehension is difficulty reading aloud. If a student struggles to recognize or sound out words when he's reading orally, he's likely encountering the same struggles when reading silently.

Weak vocabulary is another indicator of poor reading comprehension. This is because students who struggle with text comprehension may have difficulting learning and incorporating new vocabulary.

Finally, poor spelling and weak writing skills may be a signal that a student isn't able to comprehend what he's reading. Difficulty spelling may indicate problems remembering letter sounds, which means that the student is likely also having trouble processing text.

It might seem as though reading comprehension skills develop naturally, but that's because students gradually begin to internalize the techniques. Effective reading comprehension skills must be taught, but it's not difficult to do.

There are simple strategies to improve reading comprehension that parents and teachers can employ. The most important step is to ask questions before, during, and after reading. Ask students what they think the story is going to be about based on the title or cover. As you're reading, ask students to summarize what they've read so far or predict what they think will happen next. After reading, ask students to summarize the story, identify the main idea, or highlight the most important facts or events.

Next, help children make connections between what they've read and their experiences. Ask them what they would have done if they had been in the main character's situation or if they've had a similar experience.

Consider reading challenging texts aloud. Ideally, students will have their own copy of the book so that they can follow along. Reading aloud models good reading techniques and allows students to hear new vocabulary in context without disrupting the flow of the story.

There are also steps that students can take to improve their reading comprehension skills. The first, most basic step is to improve overall reading skills. Help students select books about topics that interest them and encourage them to read at least 20 minutes each day. It's okay if they want to start with books below their reading level. Doing so can help students focus on what they're reading, rather than on decoding more challenging text, and improve their confidence.

Next, encourage students to stop every so often and summarize what they've read, either mentally or aloud with a reading buddy. They may want to make notes or use a graphic organizer to record their thoughts.

Remind students to get an overview of what they'll be reading by first reading chapter titles and subheadings. Conversely, students can also benefit from skimming over the material after they've read it.

Students should also take steps to improve their vocabulary. One way to do so without disrupting the flow of reading is to jot down unfamiliar words and look them up after they've finished their reading time.

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How to Assess and Teach Reading Comprehension

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The ability to read is one of the most powerful tools teachers and parents can give students. Literacy is strongly correlated with future economic and professional success. Illiteracy, on the other hand, exacts a steep price.

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Do your ESL students sometimes struggle to understand what they've read?

Are you starting to feel guilty every time you use another one of those pre-made comprehension worksheets?

Don't have time to figure out how to spice things up?

You're in the right place!

We have five awesome reading comprehension activities for you here, that your students will surely enjoy.

But why do these types of activities in the first place?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Need for ESL Reading Comprehension Activities

We know why reading is important, right? Not only does reading teach ESL students grammar, word usage and idea expression, but it also enables them to acquire new information about their second language's culture.

Additionally, reading helps students to see how English is communicated through writing, which is why a good writer is also a good reader.

But reading anything in a second language is never easy. ESL students who are still juggling new vocabulary, grammar rules and even phonics may find reading not only tedious, but also challenging.

Most of the time, students may read an assigned story or text for the mere purpose of "doing" it. Other times, students may have diligently poured over the text-but for one reason or another-completely misunderstood the content.

This is because reading is a complex cognitive process. It involves your student recognizing individual words and putting a string of words together in their relevant context. Depending on the syntactic structure of the sentence and the overall paragraph theme, the semantic of each word may shift to carry on new meanings.

Having reading comprehension activities in the classroom helps students to test their understanding of words in written context, while enabling them to get the most out of their reading assignments.

While you have undoubtedly used the conventional reading comprehension tests to quiz your students, there are ways to make reading comprehension activities effective without relying too much on pencils and papers.

So let's get rolling with these five activities and make reading a fun classroom task for all!

1. Picture Quiz: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

When your students finish reading a story, short text or long article, most reading comprehension activities look very similar to the following:
Sarah went to the (beach/park). There, she met a friend who went to (science class /summer camp) two years ago.
You can find free worksheets like this on K12Reader.com and Mr. Nussbaum.com, so you never need to spend time making one on your own.

But, because we want to make everything a bit more colorful and creative, we're not going to use words and sentences. Instead of giving students two options to choose from or having them fill in the blanks, why not give them a bunch of pictures and do some matching?

If we use the example above, we can have several pictures labeled as A, B, C and D. Picture A can be a beach, Picture B can be a park and so on. Students can then sort through the pictures and write in the correct picture letter in the blank space.

Additionally, you can use connect the dots to connect pictures to its relevant sentences. Feel free to also throw in an irrelevant picture to make the activity a tad more tricky.

2. Sequence: Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together

Use pictures to retell the story and help your students to remember main plot points, characters and events of the text. Here's how:

To prepare, you'll need to make a worksheet of a bunch of pictures that are labeled with either numbers or letters. Make sure that there are spaces or lines immediately below the pictures so your students can label the pictures based on what they see. Depending on the level of your students, you can turn the labeling exercise into the perfect drill for practicing spelling and sentence construction.

You'll also need copies of two stories. Make sure each is single spaced, and printed on a separate piece of paper. Label each story "Story 1" and "Story 2."

1. Give your students the picture worksheet and talk about what's happening in each picture.

2. Ask your students to turn over the picture worksheet, and hand out the two stories to read.

3. After students finished reading, have them turn to the back side of the story papers. Without looking at the story, students should cut out the pictures and glue them to the back of the right story in chronological order.

If you need some inspiration on how to create a great picture reading comprehension worksheet, try ESlFlow.com. There are also some interesting picture worksheets on Cal.org that focus specifically on health literacy for ESL adults.

In the end, you'll probably find (like me) that it's more fun to find a story online and download images from Google to make your own picture stories.

3. Story Re-creation: It's Alive!

This is a great activity, especially for your drama lovers. Story re-creation is about reading a text or story and acting it out to other students.

Depending on the level of your students, you can read the story together in class before dividing them into groups for further discussions.

If you want to have students figure out the plot on their own, make sure the group you create has members with different English skill sets. In other words, you don't want to put all the strong readers in one single group. Spread them out so they can help others to succeed. Then:

1. Go to ESLfast.com or any place to find short stories. Print them out and make copies.

2. Divide students in small groups, and give each group a different story that they'll need to act out in front of the class.

3. Prepare or have your students prepare a list of short answers/multiple choices/true or false reading comprehension questions to not only engage the audience, but also to evaluate how well the actors capture the events of the story.

4. Then, once students have had enough time to prepare, it's showtime!

4. Cause and Effect: Who Solves the Mystery?

Cause and effect questions help students to think outside the box and better understand the ripple effect of events. Text materials that have a mysterious plot or a historical background are excellent choices because they require students to understand the context of the mystery, the clues and the characters to fully appreciate the thrills of crime solving.

Give this interesting crime scene a try by reading it together with your students in class. The story also ends with the question: Why isn't Inspector Coderre satisfied with Ms. Webb's version of the event?

Divide students in groups and answer this question together:

1. Create a cause and effect map to capture the first part of Ms. Webb's testimony, which ends right before the sentence, "The inspector was very sympathetic and told her that it was very natural to not want to damage somebody's property."

Here is an example of the map based on what we read:
(effect) Ms. Webb could see the study room → it was well-lit (cause). (cause) Ms. Webb broke a small window → to get into the house. (effect)
It doesn't matter how we order the cause and effect. The point is to help students notice details in the story and make an effective analysis.

2. Ask the students to identify the part of testimony that made the detective lose his sympathy. Analyze that testimonial section with another cause and effect chart. Do they notice any inconsistency?

3. Discuss student findings as a whole class or in small groups.

5. Following Directions: It's a Treasure Hunt!

When we think about reading comprehension materials, stories and short stories are usually the top resources that come to our minds. However, ESL teachers can do some hands-on activities to encourage students to read and thrive in a fun environment.

The treasure hunt reading comprehension game does just the trick. To play:

1. Hide different treasures (cards, small balls and beanies) in the classroom or schoolyard.

2. Write a short story and clues that tell where to find each treasure.

3. Divide students in groups and give them a map and a clue sheet to locate the treasure.

The map can be hand drawn or printed. Give unique names to the basic geographic features of the classroom/schoolyard so students can navigate the rain forest or dark caves without getting lost!

The clue sheet should begin with a short text that describes an actual or fictional event in the past. The story should include the name of the characters and vague descriptions of the treasures involved. The rest of the clue sheet should be filled with hints, codes and even secret messages for students to decode.

For example, if you hid a diamond playing card on the third shelf of a bookcase in the corner, you can give the following clue:
It stands in a corner with lots of pages for you to read. The diamond is on the third floor and right under a fairy tale.
The first group that finds their treasure wins the game. But they are always welcome to join other teams to help them find their treasures too!

Have Fun with ESL Reading Comprehension

Sure, there is a time for your students to read for its sheer pleasure. However, reading comprehension activities maximize the benefits of reading by making it more relevant and personal through creative reinforcements.

Let's help students to personalize the "read information" in applicable and meaningful manners with fun reading comprehension activities.

In the process, you will have opportunities to clarify misunderstandings, discuss points of ambiguities and enhance students' vocabulary, word usage and interpretation skills.

Who knows, with a few dashes of drama, entertainment and creativity, your ESL students will "read" happily ever after!
Elena is a linguist who enjoys helping ESL teachers and students to find ingenuity beyond the conventional ESL learning process. Besides teaching, Elena is also a freelance content writer who provides engaging and SEO content for business of all niches. Read more about her writing service at My Content Hopper.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Oh, and One More Thing...

If you liked these fun activities, you'll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.

It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities.

You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "brought," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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5 Creative ESL Reading Comprehension Activities Your Students Will Love

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Do your ESL students sometimes struggle to understand what they've read? Are you starting to feel guilty every time you use another one of those pre-made comprehension worksheets? Don't have time to figure out how to spice things up? You're in the right place!

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English language learners (ELLs) often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy, will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension skills along with other skills.

Examples of comprehension skills that can be taught and applied to all reading situations include:

Summarizing

Sequencing

Inferencing

Comparing and contrasting

Drawing conclusions

Self-questioning

Problem-solving

Relating background knowledge

Distinguishing between fact and opinion

Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details

These skills are particularly important for comprehending what is generally known as information reading or expository reading.

For more information, see our related articles and classroom videos:

Why reading comprehension skills are particularly important for ELLs

ELL students will still need a lot of vocabulary development and teaching of comprehension strategies even if they:

have been mainstreamed after some bilingual instruction;

are being pulled out for English as a Second Language or Sheltered English instruction; and/or

have been assessed as English proficient but you know that they still need additional help with language, reading, and writing.

Here is a way of thinking about the support your ELLs will need:

Classroom strategies: Steps for explicitly teaching comprehension skills

The following steps are useful for all students. However, these need to be complemented with the additional steps below to ensure comprehension for ELLs.

Introduce the comprehension strategy or skill (see above list) through examples. Discuss how, when, where, and why the strategy or skills are used. For example: contrast main idea with details, fact with opinion, good summaries with poor summaries.

Have students volunteer additional examples to contrast and discuss.

Label, define, model, and explain the strategy or skill. For example, after listing four facts about a healthy diet and four opinions about what is good to eat, label one list as facts and the other list as opinions.

Give students opportunities to practice using the strategy with a peer as they apply it to a short, simple paragraph from a science text or any expository text.

Debrief with the whole class to ask students to share how they applied the strategy or skill.

Additional steps for ELLs

Identify vocabulary words that you think might be difficult for students to understand when they read the text. Write ELL-friendly definitions for each - that is, simple, brief definitions ELLs can easily understand.

Model think-alouds. For example: verbalize a confusing point or show how you use a strategy to comprehend something. "This sounds very confusing to me. I better read this sentence again."

Demonstrate fix-up strategies. For example: I need to think about this. Let me rethink what was happening. Maybe I'll reread this. I'll read ahead for a moment.

Partner ELLs with more dominant English speakers and ask each student to take a turn reading and thinking aloud with short passages.

After working with partners successfully, ask ELLs to practice independently by using a checklist such as the following. Be sure to explain all the terms and model each.
While I was reading, how did I do?

Celebrate each ELLs' progress with recognition notes, praise, and/or class applause.

For advanced ELLs

When students' English proficiency and basic reading skills have increased, you can teach the following steps not just to ELLs, but to all students - because everyone will benefit.

In pairs, have students survey the text and use an idea map to record the main idea and details.

Ask partners to read the text.

Have partners restate the main idea and supporting details. At this point, they can add to their idea map or make necessary corrections.

Then ask students to reread the text and either develop their own questions (pretending to prepare a test for their partner) or write a short summary of what they just read.

After that, have partners check each other's work.

Finally, partners can share their questions or summaries with other teams.

Other ideas

For building ELL comprehension

Teach students how to use these tools for informational or expository reading:

Ask students to use the following strategies to summarize (orally or in writing):

Retell what you read, but keep it short.

Include only important information.

Leave out less important details.

Use key words from the text.

Questioning ELLs after reading

After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading comprehension activities above, you can anchor or test their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

These questions can be at the:

Literal level (Why do the leaves turn red and yellow in the fall?)

Interpretive level (Why do you think it needs water?)

Applied level (How much water are you going to give it? Why?)

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Reading Comprehension Skills for English Language Learners

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English language learners (ELLs) often have problems mastering science, math, or social studies concepts because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects. ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy, will benefit from explicit instruction of comprehension skills along with other skills.

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What is reading readiness? The dictionary defines it as the point when a child transforms from being a non-reader to being a reader. But this definition leaves out the concept that reading readiness may actually begin in the womb. Watch Annie Murphy Paul's TED Talk to learn more about what is called fetal origins.

In another vein, as Maryanne Wolf writes in Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, "We were never born to read." Getting ready to read takes years of informal exposure to language and print in a myriad of ways. This stage is called early literacy. Talking and interacting with children about daily literacy-based activities that interest them in their everyday lives best accomplishes acquiring these skills. Storytelling, print and book awareness, and playing with words (rhyming, clapping, stomping out syllables, rolling and bouncing a ball) are all great ways to get started at an early age. But even when the stage has been set with all the right components, the special-education child usually grapples with reading and writing.

How can we use tech to support the special-needs population? Technology has been touted as a game changer for many reasons: personalization, pacing, and embedded assessment tools are just a part of the success. Savvy app developers are making great products to foster reading readiness, many inspired by their own children or students who struggle with learning. The best of these products are created by passionate individuals with an understanding of what "special" means and how to address these needs. Through the use of touchscreen technology, many parents and teachers are watching their children soar socially, emotionally, and academically.

Here are just a few apps to foster reading readiness.

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Shapes & Colors by StoryToys is the perfect activity app to help equip any child with the necessary skills for reading readiness. Identifying, matching, and sorting shapes helps children recognize patterns and is the foundation of decoding. This app also has a quiet elegance that allows children to remain calm and process the material. Basic shapes are presented, as well as color and shade, scale, patterns, and combining shapes into tangrams -- much like we combine letters into words.

2. Rainbow Sentences

Rainbow Sentences by Mobile Education Store is an incredible learning tool that has a slew of different levels of play and can be adapted for differing students' needs. There are three levels of play with 55 sentences each and six levels of sentence complexity. This may sound complicated, but it's not! Rainbow Sentences offers teachers a lot of control, as the interface makes it simple to set up the levels of play. The app developer worked diligently perfecting every feature and every conceivable setting. This product offers a unique environment for improving a student's ability to create grammatically correct sentences.

3. Reader Bee

Reader Bee and the Story Tree by Learning Circle Kids LLC takes a wonderful, revolutionary, new approach for beginning readers -- you don't want to miss this one! While this app has captured all the charm, whimsy, and nostalgia of first-grade primers, it's been thoroughly researched and executed to maximize a child's first experiences with learning to read.

4. Elastic Alphabets

Elastic Alphabets for Kids by Pratik Machchar simply mesmerizes young children with the uncomplicated, easily relatable concept of line drawings. Noun after noun of child-friendly words are illustrated and accompanied by surprising animations. An apple transforms into an arrow and ultimately leads to the letter B, a balloon pops and out comes the letter C, and so the app unfolds!

5. ABC Animals

Zooper ABC Animals by Zooper Dooper Edutainment Inc. is an outstanding app -- every detail has been thoroughly developed, play-tested, refined, and perfected. This ABC adventure never ceases to surprise the user, and everyone benefits from a traditional ABC book transformed into a "touch experience." Rhyming is one of the foundational skills that plays a lead role in reading readiness, and this app has delightfully sophisticated rhymes.

6. The Reading Train

The Reading Train by The Learning Station is an app aimed at setting students up for success in beginning reading. And it delivers. Here you'll find books that kids can and will read, ideal for readers just off the training wheels.

7. The Sounding Out Machine

The Sounding Out Machine - Assistive Reading Device by FizzBrain is a brilliant new app. It helps children focus on words that are hard to sound out when reading, and then models how to say those difficult words. The Sounding Out Machine is an ideal tool for those students who don't grasp the concepts right away and continue to struggle with decoding, or for anyone puzzled by those oh-so-common words that are called outlaws, trick words, or rule breakers.

Cautionary Note

In order for children to read, write, and spell, they must be developmentally ready. Some are ready at age four or five, while others may not be ready until years later. This readiness includes complex neurological pathways and the ability to coordinate multiple sensory systems. These experiences happen naturally as children grow and play, particularly in what is referred to as crossing the midline (using both sides of the body together). But as a special education teacher, I'm familiar with the trend away from giving children ample "playtime." After all, we need to know not only what works, but also what doesn't work so well -- and that is experienced through play. As great as digital tech can be, let us not forget that children need to move around physically and have plenty of pretend time to stimulate their imaginations. This message is not clear to many who work with children. Reading requires a myriad of prerequisite skills, many that begin in the sandbox.

In the comments section below, please share your experiences with reading readiness and students with special needs.

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7 Reading Readiness Apps for Special Needs Students

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What is reading readiness? The dictionary defines it as the point when a child transforms from being a non-reader to being a reader. But this definition leaves out the concept that reading readiness may actually begin in the womb. Watch Annie Murphy Paul's TED Talk to learn more about what is called fetal origins.

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References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Chan, L.K.S., & Cole, P.G. (1986). The effects of comprehension monitoring training on the reading competence of learning disabled and regular class students. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 33-40.

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L., Mathes, P.H., & Simmons, D.C. (1997). Peer-assisted strategies: making classrooms more responsive to diversity. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 174-206. (EJ545455).

Gersten, R., Williams, J., Fuchs, L., & Baker, S. (1998). Improving reading comprehension for children with learning disabilities. (Final Report: Section 1, U.S. Department of Education Contract HS 921700.) Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Idol-Maestas, L. (1985). Getting ready to read: Guided probing for poor comprehenders. Learning Disability Quarterly, 8, 243-254.

Klinger, J.K., Vaughn, S., & Schumm, J.S. (1998). Collaborative strategic reading during social studies in heterogeneous fourth-grade classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 99, 3-22.

Pressley, M., El-Dinary, P.B., Gaskins, I., Schuder, J., Bergman, J.L., Almasi, J., & Brown, R. (1992). Beyond direct explanation: Transactional instruction of reading comprehension strategies. Elementary School Journal, 92, 511-554.

Schumaker, J., Deshler, D., Alley, G., Warner, M., & Denton, P. (1984). MULTIPASS: A learning strategy for improving reading comprehension. Learning Disability Quarterly, 5, 295-304.

Swanson, H.L., & Hoskyn, M. (1998). Experimental intervention research on students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis of treatment outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 68, 277-321.

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Improving Comprehension for Students with LD

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Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Chan, L.K.S., & Cole, P.G. (1986). The effects of comprehension monitoring training on the reading competence of learning disabled and regular class students. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 33-40. Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L., Mathes, P.H., & Simmons, D.C. (1997).