Parent Guide to Comprehension Strategies

Strategy #1 – Making Connections
Readers connect their background knowledge to the text they are reading.
  • To help your child use this strategy, ask him/her thefollowing questions:
  • Does this book remind you of anything? (TV Shows, Movies, News Stories, Historic Events, Famous People)
  • In what ways to you relate to the topics/characters in this book. If you do not relate, explain why.
  • What do you already know about the book’s topic or characters?
  • Does this book remind you of another book?
/ Strategy #2 – Questioning
Through the use of questioning, readers understand the text on a deeper level because questions clarify confusion and stimulate further interest in a topic.
•Help your child use this strategy by:
  • Modeling questioning in your own rereading.
  • Ask “I wonder…?” “Why do you think…?” “Why would…?” questions (open-ended).
  • Ask your child to come up with questions before reading to see if they are answered in the text
  • Discuss the questions that have gone unanswered and build from them
  • Discuss clarifying questions—any areas of confusion—and take steps to try to identify the answers. (reread, research unknown vocabulary or concepts to further understanding)

Strategy #3 – Visualizing
Readers visualize when they read—like having a movie projecting in your mind.
•Help your child use this strategy by:
  • Making frequent stops while reading aloud to describe the pictures in your mind. (Ex: I’m picturing that the town looks dark and dreary the way it did when we had the storm the other night. Because the author described the winds as “wild,” I’m imagining the branches and leaves blowing all around. Ex: The author said that she had a scowl on her face, so I’m picturing the face I might make when I hear someone make a rude comment. )
  • Remind students that if they are not picturing anything while reading, then they are not making meaning from the text.
/ Strategy #4 – Inferring
Readers make inferences about texts they are reading by drawing conclusions based on what the text does say, plus their prior knowledge.
  • Help your child use this strategy by asking them:
  • “How did you know that? What evidence in the text or prior knowledge led you to that idea?”
  • “Why did you think that would happen? What evidence or prior knowledge led you to that idea?”
  • “How do you think the characters feels? How do you know?”
  • “The text doesn’t say it, but I think…”
  • The conclusions I’m drawing is ______because the text says ______and I know ______.”

Strategy #5 – Determining Importance
When students are reading, they have to decide and remember what is important from the material they read in both fiction and nonfiction.
•How to help your child use this strategy:
  • Initiate discussion before reading by asking what your students know about the topic and what they would like to learn.
  • While reading, help your students look for clues in the text to determine importance. (bold, italicized, underlined sections, headings and subheadings, illustrations, captions, major changes in characters or events that change the course of the story)
  • Always ask, “Why is this important?” or “How do you know this is important?”
/ Strategy #6: Monitoring for Meaning:
When students monitor for meaning, they are recognizing when they understand and when they do not understand. Help your child by thinking aloud:
  • "Wait, I do not understand. I am going to go back and re-read."
  • "I wonder why the character is choosing to do that. I'm going to keep reading.”
  • "What does that word mean? I need context clues or a dictionary.”
  • Review possible fix-up strategies to use while reading: keep reading, re-read, ask questions, think about background knowledge, use a dictionary, ask for help, et cetera.
  • Encourage your child to re-read difficult texts.