Help Reading Comprehesion for Son

If he is working on comprehension, then ask him what to describe what he is seeing in his head. Help him to learn to visualize the scenes he is making as he reads. This is usually where the issue is when it comes to comprehension. They know the individual words, but don't know how to connect them. Maybe stop every sentence or two and ask him what he is seeing...include details, colors, movement, etc. This is the biggest skill that today's students are missing. I don't exactly know why, but I wonder sometimes if it is because the screens we see today are so much more vibrant than the tv of 30 years ago. I hope that helps.

As a reading specialist, I never suggest workbooks. The best way to improve comprehension is to:
*read lots and lots of books and to talk about them.
*read and talk about books from lots of different genres (realistic fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, sci fi, biographies, poetry, sports stories, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels, how-to manuals).
*Read the same books with him. You don't have to read together, but if you also read the book you can have great discussions and model things for him. Maybe even get Dad or an older sibling or grandparent to read the book too.
*Think book discussion conversations and not book quizzes. Go beyond the who, what, when, why questions and ask though provoking questions. And follow up with how do you know or what evidence do you have type questions.
*Talk about vocabulary!! I challenge students to find words that they didn't know how to read, weren't sure what it meant, don't use with their friends, would put in a glossary, think is a cool word, or know mom and dad would say how in the world do you know that word! We collect words and try to use them in daily conversation.
*Talk about parts that were confusing for you (I often pretend a part was confusing if I think it was confusing for the student) and talk about how you figured it out.
*Ask questions like:

-What is the lesson/moral of this book?
-What lesson did the character learn?
-How would you describe this character? Go beyond physical characteristics and include character traits, motivations, and feelings.
-How would the story change if it was told from the perspective of a different character?
-Would you be friends with the character? Why/why not?
-Why do you think the character did that?
-How did this book make you feel?
-What part of the book surprised you?
-What was your favorite part and why?
-If you could change something about the book or rewrite the ending what would you change?
-Who would you recommend this book to and why?

A great resource I found is the web site Bookopolis. It's like Goodreads for kids. With a free account (that is very secure) kids can rate books, write book recommendations, and do "book reports". My own kids love it. You can read other kids' recommendations.

Authentic reading or real books with real discussion is so much better than a workbook. Workbooks are boring. The comprehension questions are usually lower level thinking questions that teach basic recall, but not deeper thinking which is needed to truly comprehend a book.

I've found that reading together and talking about the books helped a lot.
Even when he could read things himself, I never stopped reading to/with our son.
Reading together works much better than any workbook.

Erica T's advice says it all. I agree, no workbooks, read to and with him.

Aside from talking to the teacher, here are some tips from Scholastic.

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/devel...

My daughter's leveled readers often have questions in them and I quiz her to make sure she got it vs just read words. If she skimmed something and didn't really get it, we go back. I've shown her how a little word can make a big difference to the meaning. We also like Encyclopedia Brown and similar detective books because as we read, we need to pick up on the clues about the mystery. She pays attention because she wants to beat me to the answer.

His teacher should be able to give you excellent advice, based on his particular reading interests and needs. Ask her!

I read with my dd and then I frequently stop and ask her questions about what I just read. I think this helps her to not only pay attention, but it teaches her to really think about and process the information.

I like the Spectrum series of reading comprehension workbooks. Found them on amazon. I saw some that looked good in the teacher store too.

We went through something similar with my oldest. He could get the words right, but did not always understand what they all meant. I'm guessing that is the problem you also have.

We had our son read out loud to us, and at the end of each sentence, paragraph (and chapter for more advanced books later on) had him explain what it meant, what was happening, etc.

Really, Erika says it all. But don't hesitate to try different things. What works for one child, or one learning style will not always work for a different child with a differnt learning style.

Some kids learn by reading, some by seeing, some by doing, some need to write it down, some need to say it out loud, and others need to hear it.

If you really really really want to know how he learns google children's learning styles and have him do several different learning style questionnaires. This will give you a good baseline to know, IF they're close to being the same.

Most people have a stronger then a secondary learning style. I am visual and hearing both. So if I see the speaker and hear them well I usually can pull the conversation/lecture up out of my memory well.

A LOT of kids learn by doing and then by seeing or hearing. If they see the completed puzzle on the box top they have an easier time picking out the pieces and finishing the puzzle.

Those who learn by doing need to actually get their hands in there and actually do it. Like...they don't need to see a cake to make a cake, they can make a cake by hands on.

So, to help him learn what he's reading from his books you need to find out how he learns.

If he learns by writing have him do a book report on each book. 50 words or less. An abstract of the story.

If he learns by hearing have him tell you what he read. This also ties in speaking or talking about the topic.

The hands on would be hard for me to figure out so I'd google teaching by using the kinesetic learning style.

I think you can figure this out. Google is our friend and will help you find the best questionnaires for learning styles. Then when you find out his styles you can google how to teach reading comprehension by using the XXXX learning style.

Erica T give some fantastic advice, except sometimes the parent/student mix does not go so well.

If that is the case, we put our daughter in Kumon. I know a lot of people don't agree with it, but it works. In our area, the mojority of the students are private school students and they are A/B students.

I believe if we did not put our daughter in Kumon in the first grade summer, she would would not be reading to this day. She does struggle and is a mirror reader. She understands her problem and can read fine, but she no longer skips or makes up her own words. She has excellent comprehension, however, is a slow skippy type out loud reader. She remains 1 grade level above in reading, which helps her in other subjects. she is an A/B student with the majority of her grades being A's.

Just be careful of reading programs. There are some that are just over the summer months, which is all we were interested in at first. We plan to keep her in the program until she completes it. So the ones that were during the summer months seemed a little sales pitchy and the receptionist had no knowledge of the program when I began to ask questions.

I honestly have no idea how someone can read, I.e. gleam meaning from words, and not thereby comprehend it.

Only our public schools would create such a weird paradox.

Just read to him.