How to effectively teach reading comprehension

Learn strategies that can help you increase your students' reading comprehension immediately.

Reading comprehension is one of the hot topics of the day, with national concern about children who graduate high school without knowing how to read escalating. What can you do to increase a child’s reading ability through teaching comprehension?

Build Background Knowledge

Before you begin reading a selection with your students, you should build upon the knowledge that they already have. Consider that many of your students may not have ever left your town or their neighborhood. If this is the case, how will they relate the scenes in a story set in a pastoral setting to their own city lives? In this theoretical case, you would initiate a discussion about what it is like to live in the country, and the similarities and differences between that setting and their own lives. If the story mentions landscapes that you know your students have not seen, consider showing them visual representations of the terrain, trees, and so on that are mentioned in the story. This way, students will be able to visualize what they are reading, which is absolutely critical to true comprehension.

Establish a Purpose for Reading

Grades are not as strong a motivator for learning how to read as some might like. What is the real purpose of reading, besides the fact that it is on today’s lesson plan? Discuss with students the reason for reading this particular text. Is it for enjoyment? To learn about a specific subject? When students have a specific purpose, they are more likely to become more invested in the material, which increases comprehension.

Think Aloud as You Read

When reading orally to students, stop and share what is going through your head after reading a particular word or passage. This is not meant to be a series of mini-lectures, but rather a way to provide a model of the thoughts that are going through your head while you are reading. For example, when you run across an unfamiliar word (or one you suspect is unfamiliar to your students) you could say, “That word sounds like it might be a type of tree. Oh, yes, it mentions that the boy climbed a tree. I’ll bet this is the type of tree that the boy climbed.” This helps students to develop their own self-questioning techniques.

Also stop periodically to explicitly review with students what has happened up to that point in the reading. Students who have fallen behind need not be behind during the entire reading. When reviewing, ask students what they have been thinking so far about the text.

Teach the Structure of Various Texts

Fictional accounts and expository text are quite different. Point out these differences and teach students what to look for when they are reading an essay, for example. With an essay, main points should be identifiable, which is not always the case with fiction. If students are familiar with the type of text that they are reading, they will know what to look for and will have an easier time with their comprehension.

Conduct Extension Activities

Ask students to use a graphic organizer in order to compare the similarities and differences of characters. You can also ask students to compare themselves to a particular character, using the same device.

Students can decide on alternate endings to the story, providing a rational as to why their ending would have been preferable. This helps students analyze the story, in addition to building an emotional connection to reading.

Give a small group of students a question relating to the reading that you would like them to address. The question can be written on chart paper. Ask students to brainstorm responses to the question. After a short time, ask students to switch chart paper with another group, so that they can examine aspects of a question that the previous group did not address. Do this until all groups have had the opportunity to discuss a variety of questions and to expound on the answers of the prior groups. What the students are doing in this activity is creating a deeper meaning in relation to themselves and the text, as well as having the opportunity to see how different perspectives influence interpretation.

There are many, many other strategies that you can use to enhance your students’ reading comprehension. Try investing in a book, such as the Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, which offers word frequency lists, evaluation techniques and a plethora of other resources. Teaching reading requires access to a wide variety of strategies, so that the instructor can meet the needs of each of his students. Continue to educate yourself on reading comprehension techniques, and you’ll soon see the results embodied in your students’ reading practices.