My daughter just got her 2nd report card of the year and she is behind on reading comprehension. I'm going to be asking the teacher about this as well but I'm at a loss as to what I need to help her with.
She is bringing home readers to practice each night and once she gets the content down as far as the words I have started spending time asking her questions about what is going on in the book. "Why are they doing this? What do you think will happen next?" Things like that.
At her parent teacher conference a few weeks ago that was the only thing that the teacher mentioned. Her spelling and reading ability are continuing to improve but her reading comprehension is continuing to be low. Her teacher says that she is right on track for her grade level but they expect their ability to continue to improve throughout the course of the year. They should always go up on the scale never down.
Is there anything I can do at home to help improve her reading comprehension. Are there any online tools anyone knows about?
They are using IStation in order to measure her reading comprehension during computer time and then they are reading short stories and answering questions based on the short story in class.
Just a weird aside but if she hasn't had an eye exam lately, start there. Extreme farsightedness can cause reading comprehension problems as the brain is trying very hard to interpret images and can't focus on comprehending the story.
Good luck!
Yep... read. And read things that are NEW to her. If she already knows the story, it isn't going to have the same effect in helping her.
I would also suggest, that you cover any pictures as she reads. After she reads the page (s), ask her what she thinks the pictures will be... Then let her see the picture(s). THEN, ask her about both the picture and the content of the reading she did.
Read with her (let her read to you and you hold the book and turn the pages, etc... and you can use a piece of paper to cover the pictures as she reads).
Read to her and talk about it. That's really all you can do, if you watch a show on tv ask about the show.
Reading comprehension comes down to reading...read, read, read.
The one thing I would add is ask comprehension questions, like you're doing, when you read to her. In first grade the books they can read themselves are so basic there's not much to comprehend. Plus she could be so focused on decoding her brain can't also pay attention to the actual story.
so have her:
ID the setting, characters, problem, solution, feelings, etc.
Retell/ summarize what has happened
make connections- have you done something like this? Does it remind you of another book?
Find new vocab and try to figure out meaning using context
Sometimes reading comprehension problems stem from vocabulary issues. Make sure she understands the definitions of all the words she's reading. Or that she has the RIGHT definition.
When reading is new, sometimes the child is working so hard decoding the words and putting together sentences that the meanings are lost. She just needs more practice reading.
See if she comprehends if you read TO her. If she does, then you know that the issue is she needs practice decoding the words and sentences. That comes from practice.
If she still can't follow when you read to her, then the issue is probably vocabulary. You should go back over what she has read and make sure she has the definitions of all the words.
Good luck!
my first grader is struggling with this too. I have a conference next week so I don't know what the teacher will say. How are they testing her comprehension? With him, I think he is focusing so much on getting the words right that he doesn't concentrate on what they mean. Also, when asked, he will give a 2 word answer, and has to be pushed to elaborate. If one doesn't push, he won't elaborate. I would ask the teacher how they are coming to that conclusion and what questions they are asking. If you ask the same questions at home, does she come up with better answers for you?
There are small grade specific reading comprehension workbooks out there. Look at Target, etc.
I got O. of those when's son was struggling a little in 2nd grade and it helped!
They are short, a few paragraph stories and the about 5 questions to answer (multiple choice).
And keep reading to her!
Good luck!
There are several components to reading comprehension:
1. She may need to stop every page or two and let her brain catch up. To ask herself, what just happened in this book? Have you tried encouraging her to pause in her reading, for a few seconds at a time, and make sure she knows what's going on?
2. Reading comprehension has its own vocabulary. Characters. Setting. Narrator. Beginning, middle, end. Make sure she knows what these things mean.
3. Summarizing is a skill. It comes more naturally to some than others. My own son is an advanced reader, but summarizing -- retelling the story in his own words -- seemed very foreign to him at first. I had to give him very easy books -- much below his normal level -- so he could build up this skill.
These skills, especially # 1, can get broken down into sub-skills as a child's reading becomes more advanced. For example, have her pick one character and keep thinking, if I were this character, what would I do? Then, have her reread the book and identify with a different character.
I was going to say #2 of Mira's answer. Make sure she knows what they are asking. At one point when they were testing for my son's reading level, they stopped at a certain level because they said although he knew the words of the story, he wasn't answering comprehension questions. Then I saw their test, and when I asked him "who are the characters?" he didn't know - but then told me he didn't know what the word character meant. When I rephrased it to ask - who are the people in the story, he knew just fine. Same for "what is the theme" - he said I don't know. But if I said what is the main thing the story is about, he could answer. So it wasn't a comprehension problem, it was a vocabulary problem - he didn't know the vocabulary of the questions.
Sometimes they get bored with the little readers and lost in all the wordy sentences.
My only advice is to read to her the books that are exciting...chapter books. Then talk about what is happening, the setting, the characters the plot etc.
My first grader was having similar issues this year. So I came up with the idea to read to him at night. We have read about 3 books so far this school year and already I see a difference. I read a couple chapters as he lays in bed and sister is in her bed. Rooms are right next to each other and I sit in the hall. They love this down time, they love the story and it serves a greater purpose for my son. We have read Treasure Island, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and now onto another book.
Good luck and best wishes. Keep encouraging reading and make it fun..she will catch on...sometimes it takes a little time.
Don't wait until the end of the book to ask her questions. Let her finish a random sentence and then ask her a question from that sentence. If she gets it wrong, have her read the sentence again. Do it as often as you feel she can handle it.
As she improves, let her finish reading a paragraph and then ask her a question from that paragraph. Then, let her finish a page....etc etc.
gl!
our school bought raz-kids.com accounts for each child..
I am sure you could buy it as an individual.
raz kids uses guided reading levels... A to Z .. First gradres can be anywhere from an A all the way up to G or H at this point in the year.
in RAZ-KIDS you can listen to the books.. read the books.. and then.. you answer 5 questions about the book.. the questions really test your comprehension. it is great program.. oh yeah.. you get points for each bookyou read..and you can buy things.. to decorate a spaceship..; it is cool..
my son taught himself to read ast 4. he just started kinder.. the teacher tested his reading.. and yes.. he can read.. he is reading mid first grade level.. but his comprehension is not there.. so until he can comprehend the full meaning of the text he is not ready to move on to higher reading levels.. sometimes it is practice.. more practice reading and being read to.. sometimes brain maturity... my son can answer direct questions from the text.. but not the big picture questions...
Morning
Try this if you haven't already.. Break the book down into THREE part.. beg, middle and ending..
See if instead of breaking things down in sentences and what they mean, see if after she reads a section and if she can state what she thinks the overall theme is for that specific part.
Additionally, I remember in some classes (particularly English) before reading a book, there would be a list of questions to consider while reading the book.. What if for instance you were to read a story at bedtime with her (making this fun) and before you did, you were to say to her, ok while we are reading this bedtime story, I want you to think about these things..... Oh they can be easy questions, but question enough that it gets her to think about what she is reading.. e.g. talk about main characters and that in many cases that is the person(s) who often comes up the most in a book (you could say as you were reading that oh there's that "main character again" of course, this isn't always the case.. making it simplistic will help.. or depending upon the story, Say it's one where they are traveling somewhere.. you could say, let's think about where these characters are going and why they might be going there..
Just simple stuff, but it all adds up..
Oh, and at her school.. are they signed up for accelerated reading? it's an online program whereby kids can read a book and directly afterward, go online and it will ask about 10 to 20 questions regarding a book. at my son's former school, he did it from 1 st to second grade and enjoyed it..
the questions are designed around reading comprehension. it's a great resource. ask the teacher about it.
good luck to you
My daughter's 2nd grade curriculum (K12) focuses a lot on reading comprehension.
First, before each lesson, we used to define the following words: character, plot, setting, theme, etc. until she really got the hang of what they meant.
Second, they do something called a "book walk." I have since quit doing it because after awhile, she got the hang of everything and no longer needed it, but it was helpful. Basically, it's like taking a stroll through a book without reading it...read the title, author, etc, check table of contents, flip through and look at the pictures, make guesses about who the characters are and what might happen, etc.
Then, this curriculum had us stopping after every two pages or so to ask question like, "Who did we meet on this page? Are they a main character?" and "What just happened to So-and-So? What do you think will happen next?"
Having discussions like this while reading really does help with comprehension.
