Reading Comprehension Skills

Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand what one has read. It enables the reader to "interact" with the text in a meaningful way. It is also, in my opinion, one of the biggest challenges faced by most students nowadays. A child can read a text fluently but, when asked what the text was about, would still struggle to recall these details, find the message, or give predictions simply because he or she did not "comprehend" what was read.

Moms and dads would often ask me how to address this problem. Unfortunately, there is no formula or shortcut for fixing problems in reading comprehension. The only solution is to read. And by read, I mean to do it effectively. I will post more about effective reading practices on another blog entry.

For now, here are some practice sheets that you may use to help your child improve his or her reading comprehension skills:

Reading 1 - Cause and Effect (Practice)
Short quiz on identifying the cause and effect in a statement, asks child to supply an effect for given cause

Reading 1 - Sequencing Events (Practice)
Short story about a naughty elephant, practice putting events from the story in order

Reading 3 - Sequencing Event (Practice)
Practice sheet on arranging events in order to create a short story

Reading 2 - Noting Details - Poem (Practice)
Short poem about a family tree, contains questions about details from the poem, rhyming words

Reading 3 - Elements of the Story (Practice)
Worksheet on identifying the elements of a story (setting, characters, theme, events), The Pied Piper, with comprehension questions  requiring 3-5 sentence explanations