5 Ways to Help Reading Comprehension

1. Use Graphic Organisers

Graphic organisers are a way of organising information visually to help your child’s reading comprehension by illustrating the interrelationships between particular aspects of a story. Many graphic organisers resemble flow charts, with boxes of text and arrows relating each box to the other. There is no single definitive template of a graphic organiser, but there are many different templates available online for free.

2. Answer Questions

Once your child has finished a chapter or an entire story, asking them to answer questions, either verbally or in writing, relating to the “Who”, “What”, “Where”, “Why” and “How” can both test and extend their comprehension of what they have read.

3. Ask Questions

Always encourage your child to ask questions about what they have read. Getting your child into the habit of asking questions is an important skill that will assist them in later school life. The nature of your child’s questions can also indicate their level of understanding of a text.

4. Write down New Words

To help develop your child’s vocabulary, ask them to write down any unfamiliar words and their meaning an exercise book. They can then use this book for future reference.

5. Summarise

Asking your child to summarise a story they have just read can help them recall specific themes, events, characters, and plotlines as well as learn about story structure. Learning the structure of stories is an important part of reading comprehension and by summarising a text your child can review and put into writing the aspects of the story in chronological order.

ABC Reading Eggs online lessons and activities can also provide reading comprehension help. Each lesson from lesson 9 onwards ends with the reading of an ebook, and children are required to monitor their own comprehension when they complete activities and revisit texts. Activities also ask students to recreate sentences that have become muddled, which teaches them the syntactical structure of a sentence and how to put it together to make sense.

Testimonials

David is on the 9th map and has been learning a lot of words. He can now read books almost all by himself. He was also able to jump up to Kindergarten instead of staying in preschool. David loves Reading Eggs very much and plays on it all the time. We recommend it to everybody. Vivian

Reading Eggs has simply taken off in our school! It allows students to work at their own level and provides students at the lower end of the scale with the opportunity to gain success. The kids love the games, stories and different challenges! Claire Badrock, Meekatharra School of the Air