Children can learn reading comprehension strategies even before they’re able to read texts on their own.
By watching and listening to adults model reading strategies during read-alouds, even our tiniest ones will begin to pick up on the habits of stronger readers. Then by the time they are reading on their own, these children can more naturally make predictions, ask questions, make connections, and visualize what they’re reading.
If this sounds complicated, the good news is — it's not! Families can incorporate reading strategy work on the fly, at any time, with little to no prep at all. All families need are just a few key words and phrases to keep in their back pocket to pull out during their next read-aloud with kids, whether that's over breakfast or while you have a captivate audience in the bathtub.
Try one of these five questions with your readers.
1. "What do you think will happen?"
Let's make a prediction! Predicting is simply making a logical guess about a story before or while the book is read. You could consider looking at the cover of the book and talking about the book's title before reading. Model making a prediction by saying, "The title of the book is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Dragon, and on the cover I see a big dragon. My guess is that the Old Lady will swallow him. What do you think? Let’s see!”
Alternatively, you can stop midway through a book and saying, “I see that Clifford's friend is having trouble sharing. I wonder if Clifford will help him learn to share? What do you think will happen? I bet he might learn how to share by the end of the book.”
2. "What do you already know about this?"
This is called activating schema — which simply means that you're encouraging your children to think about what they might already know about a subject as they read or talk about it. You can model this by saying, “The book we’re going to read is called Could You Ever Waddle with Penguins, and it looks like it’s about penguins. I know that most penguins live in cold climates and that they can’t fly. What do you remember about penguins?”
3. "I wonder why..."
Questioning is a critical part of developing reading comprehension. When we model questioning, we are showing kids that it is incredibly important to think about what they're reading as they're reading. After every few paragraphs or pages, model how you reflect on what you read. Some questions you can ask are:
- “I wonder why...”
- “What will happen to the...”
- “Why do you think that character looked sad in that picture...”
- “How does the dog feel now that...”
For more inspiration, try these 7 Questions to Ask During Storytime.
4. "I know how that feels."
Making connections draws readers closer to texts. Kids will feel more in touch with characters, events, and ideas when they are able to find some basic similarities with them, and as a result, they are more likely to remember what they read. Connecting is easy for young readers to do on their own. Model connecting by saying:p
- “I know how that character feels! I remember when I fell and hurt my knee...”
- “We saw the very same animal when we were at the zoo last year. Remember?”
- “You have a brother and a sister, just like Arthur.”
- “You will start preschool in the fall, and we just read a book last week about Max who was starting at a new preschool.”
5. "What picture does this put in your mind?"
Visualizing is simply having readers picture, or visualize, what they are reading. Visualizing isn’t always necessary when reading richly illustrated children’s books, but when reading stories, poems, or articles that lack imagery and art, you can say:
- “When I read these words, I can really feel the warm breeze blow through my hair.”
- “Close your eyes, and tell me what you see when I read this poem. What pictures does it put in your mind?
Reading is not only a solitary conversation with a book or text. It can be a conversation we can share together with kids, and when we do so, it's a richer and more rewarding experience for everyone. Pause to ask questions and hear all their imaginative, wild, and often funny thoughts. It will help our children become the best readers and thinkers they can be — well before they’re reading on their own!
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