Reading Comprehension At Home

To support your child’s reading progress, practice sight words nightly, practice letter sounds and blending, as well as reading daily with your child.  Both while and after reading stories, help strengthen comprehension skills by asking some of the following questions:

While your child is reading a book, try asking:

• Will you catch me up on the story? What’s happened so far?
• What do you think will happen next?
• If you were that character, what would you have done differently in that situation?
• Where is the book taking place?
• If the main character in that story lived next door, would you be friends?
• What does the place look like in your head as you read? Would you want to visit there?
• Did you learn any new words or interesting facts?

After your child has finished a book, ask questions like:

• What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
• How was the character feeling?  How do you know?
• Who was your favorite character? Why?
• What was the most interesting thing you learned from the book?
• Why do you think the author wrote this book? How do you know?
• Would you have ended the book differently? Did it end the way you thought it would?
• If you could change one thing in the book, what would it be?

When questioning your child, make sure not to ask yes and no questions as this does not really require much thought and analysis of the book.  Also, the “why” or “how do you know” parts are very important for your child to be able to digest their understanding of the book.