Comprehension Strategies – Reading Equals Thinking

Reading is much more than just being able to read the words. We want our students to be able to laugh at the funny parts, have conversations about the characters and their actions and make connections to their own lives.

At the beginning of this school year classes have been reviewing and introducing a range of comprehension strategies. These comprehension strategies are a big part of the school reading curriculum and are important strategies for parents to understand in order to have conversations with your child when reading at home. Below are some tips, strategies and language to try at home.

Making Connections

Good readers make connections when they read. It might sound like, “Oh that’s happened to me before…” or “I felt the same exact way when…”

It is important that young readers not only make connections, but that the connections they make are meaningful. Meaningful connections are those that connect to the bigger ideas (the main idea, the lesson being taught, the plot) in the story.

For example, the fact that the main character in the book has her bedroom walls painted the same color as your child’s does not make for a meaningful connection. But if the character in the book is disappointed about something, your child could think back to a time when they were disappointed. By doing this, he/she can relate to how the character feels as well as predict what he/she thinks the character might do about it.

There are three different kinds of meaningful connections kids can make:

1. Text-to-Self Connections

When your child reads, you want them to think about how it reminds them of something they have done or something they know. A good connection will help them understand the text better. As they are reading, help them share those connections out loud and be willing to share your own connections as you read together.

A good text-to-self connection might sound like…

This reminds me of the time that I…
I know exactly how the character feels because when that happened to me…
Remember when…
Because I know about ______, I can understand _______.

2. Text-to-Text

Sometimes we are able to use knowledge about another book to help us understand another text. We might notice this especially when we read a book series or books by the same author. The style or the story line makes the book more predictable and easier to comprehend.

A good text-to-text connection might sound like…

This character reminds me of the character in this book because…
This part reminds me of the book I read yesterday…
I think the book will end this way because in this other book…

3. Text-to-World

Things we read can remind us of events happening in our world. It might be something from history, something currently happening in our community. Children can use that knowledge and apply it to help them comprehend the texts they read.

A good text-to-world connection might sound like…

This reminds me of something I heard on the news…
I think this has happened in history before…
It seems like this book happened a long time ago because…
This is the same problem we’re facing right now in Australia…

Making Predictions

Predicting is probably the most familiar of all the comprehension strategies, but it can be a tricky strategy. It requires readers to use the clues the author gives them, tap into their own prior knowledge (making connections), and make an educated guess as to what might happen next. Many times our predictions are not correct and we are constantly monitoring and modifying our predictions as we read on. When kids make predictions, probing with further questions is a great idea. “Why did you predict that?” or “What’s the thinking behind your prediction?” This helps you to see their thinking and label their strategy for predicting.

Your child may answer: “Well, I guessed she would do that because when that happened to me, I did that.”

You could then reinforce what they have done as a reader, eg. “So you just made a text-to-self connection. You thought about a time when it happened to you and you used that prior knowledge to predict. That’s exactly what good readers do! ”

Asking Questions

One of the things that good readers do is ask themselves questions as they read. This makes them want to keep reading to find the answer. When modelling this comprehension strategy, I explicitly talk about what makes a good question.

Good Questions:

You don’t already know the answer
You really do wonder about it
The answer might require further research because it may not be answered in the text
Make us want to keep reading to find the answer

When talking about reading with your child ask, “what are you wondering? What questions do you have? Have you had any of your questions answered? What do you think the answer to your question could be?”

Visualising

It is vital for readers to be able to decipher important information from the not-so-important information when reading a text. Have you ever asked a child to tell you about the story and they begin to tell you every single detail. Instead you could ask your child to tell you what happened in the beginning, middle and end. Have them talk about the main characters, the problem and how the problem was solved.

With non-fiction texts, ask your child to summarise a section of the text or tell 5 important facts they learned from that page of reading. You can also ask, ‘what do you think the author wanted you to learn?'

Synthesizing

When good readers read, their thinking grows as they progress through the text. They might initially think one thing as they begin reading and their initial thoughts are sometimes challenged or added to later in the text. Debbie Miller compares it to throwing a rock into a pond: “first there’s the splash, and then the water ripples out, making little waves that get bigger and bigger…as you read, your thinking evolves and the meaning gets bigger and bigger…” (Reading with Meaning , pg. 159) Talking to your child about how their thinking has changed and why, is one way to support them to synthesize what they have read.

We are partners in your child’s learning. We can only do so much at school, the conversations and support you can give at home with reading does matter and has a significant impact on your child’s attitude towards reading and their ongoing development. Make the discussion about reading a conversation, not an interrogation so that your child looks forward to sharing their thinking about reading with you!

Sally Slattery, Deputy Principal