How to help my 2nd grader with reading comprehension

Comprehension: Activities for Your Second Grader

Second graders are becoming independent, active readers who ask questions and think about what they're reading! Here are some of the things your second grader can do:

Here are some basic things you can do to boost your child's comprehension skills:

Although your second grader may be reading independently, it's still a good idea to build in some read aloud time. You will continue to introduce your child to more sophisticated vocabulary and stories, including chapter books. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to help children learn about the world and make connections between their own lives and what's in the book — and that helps children see the world with empathy. And last but not least, it's a chance to spend one-on-one time with your child and share the experience of reading and discovery together.

Remember that reading together should spark curiosity, joy, and a desire to explore and learn. Conversations about books should be enjoyable, and not a set of quizzes and questions. As you try some of the activities listed below, remember to keep it light and lively for your child.

Sharing family stories out loud and listening to audiobooks are wonderful ways to expose your child to language, how stories are built, and knowledge about the world.

There are so many great nonfiction and informational books for young kids (such as the popular DK Eyewitness series and National Geographic series). Try to include some of these during your next trip to the public library. Children love learning about the real world and are proud to share what they know!

Even a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the grocery store can be a rich learning experience for young children. On a walk, your child may watch what's going on at a construction site, and then be able to connect it to stories about what it takes to design and construct a building and the impressive machines that make it happen. These personal connections help children connect what they read with what they know — a powerful way to build comprehension skills!

Try these comprehension activities at home

Active reading

Model active reading when you read with your child. Talk about what's happening as you're reading. Stop and discuss any interesting or tricky vocabulary words. Help your child make pictures of the story in his mind. Ask your child, "What just happened here? How do you think that character feels? Have you ever felt like that? What do you think will happen next?" Not only will this develop your child’s comprehension, but critical thinking skills as well.

"I predict ..."

When you sit down for a read aloud, look at the book's cover together. Ask, "What do you think this book might be about? Why? Can you make some predictions?" Guide your child through the pages, discuss the pictures, and brainstorm what might happen in the story. Talk about any personal experiences your child may have that relate to the story.

Mind movies

When you come to a descriptive passage in a book, have your child close her eyes and create a mental movie of the scene. Encourage her to use all five senses. Read the passage over together, looking for details that bring the scene to life. Ask questions like, “How do you know it was a hot day? Which words help you understand that the child was lonely?”

Map this book!

Draw a map of the book's setting, and be sure to include the places where the main action happens!

Beginning-middle-end

This is a great way to see if your child understands the main parts of a story. After reading a book together, give your child three sheets of paper, with "beginning" on one sheet, "middle" on the second sheet, and "end" on the third sheet. Ask your child to think about the three parts of the story, and then draw what happened on each on the sheets. Arrange the sheets in order, left to right. What happens if you re-arrange the sheets? Does the story still make sense?

Tell me about it

After a read aloud, one of the best and easiest ways to check for understanding is to ask your child to summarize what the book was about in their own words. You can ask a question or two to help your child clarify her thinking or to add more detail.

Can your child tell you what happened in the story?

This video is from Home Reading Helper, a resource for parents to elevate children’s reading at home provided by Read Charlotte. Find more video, parent activities, printables, and other resources at Home Reading Helper.

Think alouds

Connect the book to your child's own life experience. For example, A River Dream: "This book reminds me of the time my father took me fishing. Do you remember the time we went fishing?"

Connect the book to other books they have read. For example, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: "This story reminds me of Cinderella. Both stories are about sisters. Do you know any other stories about nice and mean sisters? Let's keep reading to find out other ways the stories are similar."

Connect the book to big ideas/lessons. For example, Stellaluna: "This story helps me understand that we are all the same in many ways, but it's our differences that make us special."

Words, words, words

Be sure to include books with rich vocabulary in your read alouds and call attention to interesting words and phrases from the story. This may include repeated phrases or idioms (such as "get cold feet" or "I'm all ears"). Offer a kid-friendly definition and connect the new word or phrase to something your child already knows.Talk about how the author used language or words to make the text interesting, informative, funny, or sad.

Illustrated timelines

After reading a story, have your child create an illustrated timeline of events from the story. Tape together five sheets of paper along the 8-1/2-inch side to create one very wide sheet that is 55 inches X 8-1/2 inches. To help plan the timeline, your child can add numbers that mark important points of the story. Then it's time to fill in the sequence of events with words and pictures. Once the timeline is complete, ask your child to re-tell the story — acting it out is okay, too! Variation: Create the timeline using Post-Its on a wall or outside using sidewalk chalk.

Comic creator

Lots of kids love comics and graphic novels. Help your child make a comic based on a favorite book — stories with action work especially well. Talk about what happened in the story, and help your child choose which event from the story that she wants to draw. Ask your child to think about the beginning, middle, and end of the event. Using a ruler and marker, divide a paper into squares (or print out this comic strip template from Scholastic). Using colored pencils or fine markers, your child can begin the comic strip, drawing one scene per square. Don't forget to include captions beneath each drawing or in graphic novel-style speech bubbles! When the strip is done, ask your child to share her story.

Talk show

Set up a talk show set with two chairs facing each other. If you like, make two microphones out of paper tubes or other craft supplies. You are the host and your child is a character from the book. Ask questions about the character, such as who you are, why you are important to the story, what happened to you in the story, what is the craziest interaction you had with another character, etc. Then switch roles!

Book trailer

Using a cell phone camera or other recording device, make a short video of your child talking about about why he recommends this book. Encourage your child to show the book cover and some of the inside pages when talking about a certain character or action sequence. Share the book trailer with family and friends!

Show what you know

Does your child love reading nonfiction books (and yes, The Magic School Bus is nonfiction, in a way)? Kids this age enjoy learning facts about things and trying to understand how the world works. If you've been poring over some nonfiction books at home, take 10 minutes to ask your child specific "fact" questions, listen to her answer, and then ask her to show you where to find that in the book.

The power of having your child find answers in an informational book

Finding the right book

The library is the perfect place to feed eight-year-old T.J.'s growing appetite for information — especially about dinosaurs. His mom, Andrea, has figured out that what makes these trips fun for T.J. is letting him pick his topics and direct his own search. (From our PBS Launching Young Readers program Reading for Meaning. )

More comprehension resources

2nd Grade Tips and Ideas

Parents of second graders may be eying third-grade expectations, and, for some students, third grade may be the beginning of a more demanding curriculum. What reading level should second-graders hit to be prepared for third grade?

According to Scholastic, the reading level for the beginning of third grade is J; this corresponds to a Lexile® of around 520. If a child struggles with comprehension, they may struggle with chapter books in third grade. Here’s how to improve reading comprehension for children in the 2nd grade.

How Can I Improve My Child’s Reading Comprehension?

Whether a child is in 2nd grade or in a higher grade, reading comprehension can affect the understanding of the story or book. If a child reads fluently but is unable to recall the plot or important details, summarize the main ideas or begin to inference (in later grades), they may be struggling with reading comprehension.

Try these tips at home to help children improve their reading comprehension:

Sight Word Scavenger Hunt

In second grade, children probably still have a list of sight words that they are expected to memorize and recognize on sight. Parents can make flashcards with these words to help children identify these words. Sight word scavenger hunts also can turn identifying these words into a game; make a list of the sight words and encourage children to find them during errands.

Ask ‘Wh’ Questions

Parents can read with children and ask key questions about the book after a chapter or every few pages. Focus on the ‘wh’ questions of comprehension: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Comprehension Bookmarks

In second grade, chapter books may be short. Parents can also encourage children to make a comprehension bookmark to help them ask questions and think about the context of the story as they read. There are many great resources for creating comprehension bookmarks on the web; the site What I have Learned in Teaching offers many great examples.

Read…Then Re-Read!

Scholastic also recommends that children reread passages to help them with fluency and understanding. Even adults sometimes need to reread paragraphs or maybe even multiple pages if they lose their focus while reading. It’s always ok to go back and reread for understanding. This could become a good strategy for children who need repetition to gain mastery.

What are the Seven Reading Comprehension Strategies?

Parents may wonder how teachers provide guidance to help children master reading comprehension. Reading Rockets includes seven strategies for helping with reading comprehension; the article is geared to the classroom. However, parents could integrate these strategies at home. The list of strategies includes:

Monitoring Children

According to Reading Rockets: “Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension. ” While this is geared towards teachers, parents can monitor and help children better understand where they struggle. Then children and parents can create solutions to aid those struggles. This could include rereading or other helpful aids.

Metacognition

What does this mean? Basically, the site explains that it is “thinking about thinking.” Students will peruse what they are about to read and have an idea about why they’re reading the text. Then they will adjust their reading for the text; that is, they may read slower for more difficult material. Children also could ask questions as they read. Reading Rockets lists a number of strategies for metacognition.

Graphic Organizers

These visual aids could greatly help children with comprehension. And, yes, parents and children can make them at home! Visit Reading A-Z for printable organizers.

Asking Questions

Another strategy from Reading Rockets is Answering Questions. This is beyond the ‘wh’ questions, however. Instead the questions include more intricate reading strategies to test comprehension. These questions, per the site, include:

“Right There:” These can include simple scavenger hunts through the text. Like what is the stuffed bear’s name?

“Think & Search:” The point of these questions is that children need to “search” the text to find the answers. Examples can include questions about a character’s emotions.

“Author & You:” This makes children think about the book or characters and the events. These are ‘why do you think…” types of questions. Reading Rockets used the question: “How do you think a frog felt when he found a toad?” as the example of this strategy.

“On Your Own:” These questions relate personal experiences to the story. For example, a story where the main character’s father loses his job could prompt a question on how a child would feel if this happened to them.

Brainstorming Questions

Children can come up with their own questions about the story and see if they can answer those questions. This could help them test understanding. This could delve back into those key ‘wh’ questions.

Story Composition

How a story is composed can be a crucial part of comprehension. Reading Rockets focuses this strategy more on the meat of a story—so characters, problem, setting, resolution, etc.

However, to expand on Reading Rockets’ summation, it’s also important that children recognize different types of narration. Some stories include flashbacks or background information. Identifying how narration changes or how points of view change throughout the story may impact comprehension. If a child can’t understand that a story is composed of numerous narrators, they may miss key points of the story.

In Summary

The final strategy, per Reading Rockets, is summarizing. Children need to be able to summarize what they’ve read. Summarizing includes understanding the main ideas and being able to filter out the info that isn’t so important to the story.

What Level Reading Should a 2nd Grader Be At?

There isn’t an exact and precise answer regarding ‘what level reading should a 2nd grader be at. ” Reading levels typically progress throughout the year, and teachers like to see growth. Scholastic notes that children could begin third grade at a reading level of J. Some children could be reading at a much higher level, others could be below this level.

When should parents be concerned? Every parent is different in what concerns them. However, if a parent notices that their child doesn’t seem to be advancing in their reading levels, they might open up a dialogue with the teacher. In addition, standardized tests or reading assessments could indicate that a child is reading below grade level.

Can Reading Apps Help With Comprehension?

Parents who notice their child is struggling with reading comprehension could use tools and resources at home to help them gain proficiency and confidence. Worksheets and apps could help children who perhaps don’t qualify for extra help at school.

Parents can talk to their child’s teacher about enrichment reading worksheets to use at home. Teachers could have some additional materials that they could send home for enrichment, too. It never hurts to ask!

Parents who feel their child needs one-on-one help also could use a reading app at home. These apps should focus on helping to address the child’s individual struggles, however. While apps designed as games can be fun and entertaining, they might not help a child delve deeper into the context of a story or provide assistance to a struggling reader.

Readability is designed to provide children with help in both phonics and comprehension. The app includes a built-in AI tutor that provides feedback with pronunciation and helps children when they struggle during lessons. The tutor also asks questions about the story to gauge comprehension. Children advance to a higher level as they show mastery in both reading fluency and comprehension.

How Do Parents Know That an App or Reading Program Works?

Apps and reading programs can be an investment for parents. The cost could be a monthly commitment. Parents may wonder what to expect from their investment. How do you know if an app or program works for the child?

With Readability, parents can access the Parent Dashboard to gain insight about their child’s progress. Via this dashboard, parents can view a child’s progress, current reading level and other pertinent data. Parents can also check to see how long the child used the program.

Data from the dashboard also can be sent to a child’s teacher. Parents can talk to the teacher to inquire about progress at school. While improvement and advancement via the app is important, parents also want to know that the child is making similar progress at school.

Parents also may look for programs that offer a free trial. Not every program will be a fit for every child. Parents should feel empowered to try out a program to ensure that it meets their needs…and can help their child’s unique struggles. Readability offers a free seven-day trial; children have access to all the stories and features in the program for one week at no cost. At the end of this period, parents can decide if they want to continue with a monthly subscription.

Ready to try Readability? Sign up today for a free trial…and get reading!

Learning to read quickly and correctly in 15 minutes a day

Do modern children read a lot? Oh yeah! How many modern children read books? Oh no! How to teach a child to read quickly and understand what they read? Magic exercises in this article.

Experts believe that in no other era of human life have people read as much as they do now. Messages in instant messengers, forums, comments, games with text content, comics… children read a lot, but they read poorly. Do you want to teach your child to read faster and understand what they read? We have magical exercises that will allow a child to double or triple their reading speed in 10-15 minutes a day.

The Seven Enemies of Speed Reading

1. Irregular eye movements

It may seem that while reading, the gaze smoothly glides over the line, but this is not so. In fact, the eye moves in small "jumps" from one section of a word or sentence to another. During the stop before the next jump and reading takes place, while we are looking away, we cannot perceive information. Adults, reading in Russian, evenly "jump" from word to word, from left to right. Fixation at one point usually lasts no more than a quarter of a second. Children may have trouble moving their eyes properly when reading, which slows down their reading speed. Have your child follow the pencil with their eyes as you draw it from left to right about 30 centimeters from their face. If it is difficult for him to follow the pencil and his eyes move with noticeable jerks, then he needs to work on the correct eye movements when reading.

2. Pronunciation of words

Articulation is the enemy of fast reading, but only among teenagers! Younger schoolchildren should just be able to pronounce words correctly, without swallowing letters and endings, and be sure to voice what they read “to themselves”. A big mistake is to wean a child of 6-9 years old from articulation while reading. This threatens:

spelling errors;
incorrect reading of words;
incorrect accents.

3. Return of the gaze to the starting point

It will seem surprising to you, but when reading silently, we re-read the same thing several times without noticing it. Some children may unconsciously read the line 5-6 times before they comprehend the text. Try to measure your and your child's reading speed by reading just like that and moving your finger under the line. The results will surprise you.

4. Narrow field of view

Heroes of spy action films often notice some vague shadow with peripheral vision and flee from the threat. However, in civilian life, lateral or peripheral vision also plays an important role. For example, it allows you to read faster! Slowly reading children see three to six letters at the same time, imagine how reading speed increases if a child can perceive 8-20 characters at a time.

5. Inability to concentrate

Problems with concentration are not uncommon in adults. It is difficult for children to maintain focus for a long time even on interesting subjects and activities. If a child does not like to read, then ten minutes of focused reading is already a victory, but if a young student is constantly distracted and cannot concentrate in any way, then leave him alone. It is better to return to the exercises later than to bring the child to tears and cause him to hate reading.

How to develop the ability to concentrate in a child, read this article.

6. Poor vocabulary

Once a second grader's mother wrote to us after spending two days memorizing a poem with her child. The poem itself is short, only eight lines.

« October has already come - the grove is already shaking off

The last leaves from its bare branches;

The autumn cold has died - the road is freezing through,

The murmuring stream is still running behind the mill,

But the pond has already frozen; my neighbor is in a hurry

To the outgoing fields with their hunting,

And the winters suffer from furious fun,

And the sleeping oak forests wake up the barking of dogs.

Words in the poem are highlighted in red, the meaning of which the child did not know. The lion's share of time was spent on their explanation and memorization. Any incomprehensible word is a bump in the path of the cognitive process, if there are more than 10% of such words, not only the reading speed is lost, but also the percentage of understanding.

7. Poor reading comprehension

Dozens of books have been written about how to read correctly in order to effectively assimilate what they read, but children aged 6-9 just need to be able to understand the text they read. It would seem, what is the connection with the speed of reading? Straight. The sooner the child realizes that reading is not a boring, unloved activity, but a way to gain knowledge and have fun, the more willingly he will devote his free time to books. And there is already an expansion of vocabulary, and improvement of grades is just around the corner.

Magic exercises

Schulte Charts

Schulte Charts are an effective method for developing peripheral vision. Place the table at a distance of 30-40 centimeters from the child, his task, looking at the center, is to find the numbers from 1 to 9, without moving his eyes.

Stroop Test

A fun exercise you can do with your child. The task is to name the color with which the words are drawn, and not to read the text.

This exercise develops both the ability to focus on reading and the ability to understand what is read.

Anagrams

Another exercise that can be entertaining in line or while waiting for an order.

It is necessary to decipher the hidden words. This exercise trains intuitive reading and quick thinking.

Patter

We speak more clearly - we read faster.

Tongue twisters are another exercise that can be practiced anywhere.

Reading with a finger or a ruler

If a child tries to stray from a line or looks back with his eyes, then reading with a ruler or a finger under the word being read can help him get rid of this habit.

Minimum vocabulary

The link below contains lists of the most frequent words in the Russian language, believe me, if a child learns to read them fluently, his overall reading speed will increase by two to three times. The fact is that we do not read every word, we predict most of the words, knowing in advance speech stamps, set expressions and how sentences are built. It is enough to know the thousand most commonly used words in order to easily perceive 60% of texts in Russian.

100 frequency words of the Russian language
100 - 1000 frequency words of the Russian language

Magic square of understanding

A great way to prepare for the text of the text or simply teach the child to perceive the read. Answers to questions can be written or drawn. It is best to print several squares and paste them as you fill them in a separate notebook.

Extra words

A very fun exercise that will require some preparation from you. Take a fairy tale or story known to the child and insert extra words into the text. The child's task is to be a detective, he needs to find and cross out extra words. At first, it is better that the words go out of context and add absurdity to the story, and when the child begins to easily cope with the task, the task can be complicated by using a text unfamiliar to the child.

General recommendations

Set a personal example, children like to imitate their parents, if from time to time the child sees you with a book, he will read more willingly.
Do not force your child to read, he will begin to hate both books and reading itself.
Practice 10-15 minutes a day, but every day. Consistency is much more important than the amount of time spent at a time.
Buy books that suit your child's interests. Comic books are a great choice, yes, there is not much text, but it's still text!
A little trick that will definitely work. Download cartoons and series interesting for a young student in the original voice acting with Russian subtitles. You can slow down the speed of the subtitles to make it comfortable for the child to read. So you will kill two birds with one stone: the child will get used to the sound of foreign speech and will begin to read faster.

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How to teach a child to understand and remember the read text?

You spend a lot of time helping your child learn to read. You try to be patient and not rush him. He reads and rereads the same paragraph, but he never “understands” it. Why is it so difficult for a child to understand what he reads?

It's great that you support your child's reading endeavors. Your disappointment is understandable, you have spent a lot of time and effort on teaching your child, but at the same time you do not see much improvement. Rest assured, you have already done a lot just by showing your child how much you care about him.

The ability to extract meaning from sentences and paragraphs involves a complex combination of many skills and abilities. In order to provide a child with the right support in reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of his difficulties.

The process of decoding and word recognition

The process of decoding is the transformation of a graphic model of a word into an oral language form. The ability to match the written and sound designation of a word is an important step in learning to read. Decoding is the foundation on which all learning to read is built.

If your child gets lost in the decoding process, they will have difficulty reading comprehension. To develop your decoding skills at home, take classes in the new Fast ForWord Foundations correctional online program. Decoding is a very important process - the more words a child can automatically recognize at a glance (without having to pronounce each letter or syllable), the faster he will be able to read.

Reading fluency

Why does fluent reading matter? If a child reads each word syllable by syllable, it takes him a long time to read the whole sentence. This makes it difficult to memorize all the words in a sentence and understand how they fit together.

One way to learn to quickly recognize a word is to read it out loud several times. This is why reading the same passage repeatedly can help a child learn to read fluently.

Reading comprehension level

Even if your child is good at reading, they may be reading books that are well above their current level of comprehension. The most important thing is that the child can not only read the text, but also comprehend it. Sometimes teachers evaluate reading skills - how well a student can read and understand a text. These grades also reflect important information - whether the student needs help.

Talk to the teacher about your child's reading skills. You can ask the teacher to recommend books for home reading that are appropriate for your child's reading level. You can also choose books by yourself. For example, when choosing a book, ask your child to read a few pages and talk about what they just read. The book is suitable if the child really understands what they read.

Attention concentration

Difficulty concentrating is another reason your child may have reading comprehension problems. Reading comprehension also depends on the ability to ignore distractions.

If your child has difficulty concentrating, it may be due to an executive function disorder, an auditory processing disorder, or ADD/ADHD. These impairments can affect his ability to understand and retain information in working memory.
You can help your child to reduce the load, for example, teach him to break reading tasks into small parts, take notes, highlight important information.

Comprehension skills and strategies

Reading is thinking. And the way we think is the basis for improving comprehension while reading. To improve text comprehension, sometimes we need to consciously stop while reading and analyze our ideas and thoughts related to what we have read.

You can teach your child to be an active reader. Encourage him to voice all his thoughts and doubts, ask questions as he reads, read aloud one paragraph at a time and discuss what he read.
Point out to him that experienced readers also watch how well they understand what they read and reread confusing parts of the text. Learn to look for contextual clues around a sentence or phrase, such as pictures or words in adjacent sentences, can help your child understand the meaning of words they don't understand.