Learning and Teaching

Literacy: Understanding what I read

Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension, or gaining meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading. It is an active process that involves the reader understanding and interpreting what is read. Children can use many comprehension strategies to help them understand what they read.

These Reading Response Sentence Starters are a great way of checking your child’s understanding of a text.

Prior Knowledge

Readers use what they already know to respond to their reading.

This reminds me of….
I remember when….
I once read about….

Making Predictions

Readers use what they know and have read to think about what will happen next.

I think….. because….
If…. then….
…..will probably happen because….

Asking Questions

Readers think about their reading and ask questions about it: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

I wonder what it means when….
How is it possible that….
I would like to ask the author…..

Visualising

Readers picture what is happening while they are reading.

In my mind, I see….
I can imagine….
The description of…. helped me see….

Inferring

Readers ‘read between the lines and make an educated guess using their knowledge and text evidence.

From the text clues, I can conclude that….
Based on what I know and read, I think….
Although the author did not write it, I can figure out that….

Summarising

Readers identify the essential ideas of what they read and restate them in their own words.

The text is mainly about….
The key information is….
The author’s most important ideas were….

Simone Crist

Literacy Leader