Reading comprehension strategies for 2nd graders

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

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.

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

3 Comprehension Strategies for Second Grade Guided Reading

You sit down at your table, get your readers reading, then freeze.

Oh no! I need to check for comprehension.

What will my focus be?

If you have followed me for even a few months, you probably have heard me share about my guided reading journey. It took some time, but once I found my groove, I felt great about my groups! Here is what I found that worked.

Give it a try!

Before the students at my table start reading, I give them a decoding strategy to add to their toolbox if they get stuck on a word. Accuracy’s importance shouldn’t be ignored, but I do want the focus to be on comprehension to help these young readers develop a strong foundation.  

After the decoding strategy, I give students a comprehension strategy so that I can check for their comprehension and give them different things to think about as they read. 

Let’s jump into three reading comprehension strategies for second grade guided reading that are perfect to teach during the beginning and middle of the year. 

Retelling using specific language and narrative structures. 

This concept takes something that we have been working on for several guided reading levels and add details to it. We build upon what they already know and have already practiced. When students are able to share details, it means they comprehend the storyline and understand what the author is saying.

Readers should be able to do this for both fiction and nonfiction. When students are moving towards levels L and M, they will focus on using both specific and descriptive language while retelling. 

Day 1: After reading the book, show them the teaching poster and say, “Authors are very thoughtful with their words. They picked special words and phrases to share in this story. Let’s retell the story together. I want you to be sure to include specific things the author said. Remember, we are not memorizing the book – just using some of the author’s important words to help us.” 

Day 2:  Before students read their book, say, “Today as you are reading, remember to hold the repeated phrases or special things the characters say in your head. As we retell the story after, these words help us retell well.  Let’s read with a quiet, whisper voice.”

Making and revising predictions while reading. 

Making predictions is a strategy our readers have been working on since kindergarten. By first grade, their predictions are becoming more advanced and specific. Finally, by second grade, our readers are practicing making predictions while they read and revising them. 

This is important because it ensures that readers are engaged in the text and are understanding it. If young readers can’t monitor their predictions and check them as they read, then they probably don’t understand what they are reading. 

Day 1:  This is how the discussion at the table might sound before reading a text. “Before we preview the text, let’s make a prediction. As you read today, you may need to change your prediction, and that is okay. Let’s go on a picture walk to see what a dairy farmer does! We make predictions before reading. Then, as we read and discover new information, we revise our prediction.”

Then, after students have read the book, the discussion might start like this, “Before reading, you predicted one thing. Did that change as you read the book? Tell me about that.”

Day 2: Because students will have already had an introduction to revising predictions, simply ask them to come up with some predictions and make note of how they changed. Then, after reading, you could say, “Before reading, you predicted one thing. Did that change as you read the book? Tell me about that.”

Inferring What Lessons the Author Might Be Trying to Teach

This is another skill that we have been scaffolding for our students. For this guided reading comprehension strategy in second grade, we take a skill that they have been working on for several levels – inferring – and add details. This is a skill that is new at this level and really challenges them to both comprehend the text and think beyond the text. We are entering the higher level of Bloom’s here! 

Day 1: On the first day, readers should focus on using their schema and clues from the text to make an inference. You could say, “When authors write stories, sometimes they want to teach a lesson. What lesson can you infer that the author was trying to teach with this text?”

Day 2: Review the strategy from day one. It might sound like, “When authors write stories, sometimes they want to teach a lesson. What lesson can you infer that the author was trying to text with this text?” 

When your readers get to guided reading levels K-M in second grade, they are silently reading most of the time. We only want them to read aloud softly so that we can check in on them – think of it as a mini-conference. This means that monitoring comprehension is even more important than ever. We use these conversations to double-check and know if they are understanding what they are reading. Helping our second grade students in guided reading learn these comprehension strategies moves them forward in reading.

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Remember, comprehension is the goal – not accuracy. 

If you need some more tips on helping readers struggling with reading comprehension, check out THIS POST.

If you want to try some effective ways to check for reading comprehension, THIS POST has different ways to check for it before, during, and after reading.

If you want to have everything you need to be set for guided reading in second grade, check out the Guided Reading Bundle for levels K-M. Each level has:

• 6 texts in both color and black and white
• Scripted lesson plans 
• Teaching posters and charts
• Parent Involvement notes
• Everything you need for word work for each book
• Running records

You don’t have to take my word for it – teachers who are using this resource in their classrooms are excelling in guided reading! Audrey said,

“Wonderful resource for teachers struggling with guided reading groups. Easy print and go resource including lesson plans, books, and everything you need at your fingertips.” 

Eilieen said, 

“I am so happy that you now have guiding reading for second grade…It is so much better than the leveled readers my school has.”

This resource is for every teacher whether you have been doing guided reading for a while, are brand new, or just don’t have access to quality guided reading resources at your school.  

Grab your Second Grade Guided Reading Bundle and start using it today! Let me know if you have any questions at all. I’m always happy to help! 

Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This FREE guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!

Effective strategies for working with text in the classroom at school

The ultimate goal of teaching Russian is practical literacy and language competence. The basis of the content of literature as an academic subject is reading and textual study of works of art.

Work with the text as the main didactic unit allows schoolchildren to combine the activities of developing practical skills of literate writing and speech development.

Every teacher dreams that all students come to the lesson prepared: they have completely read this or that work or paragraph. And not just read, but understood the meaning of the text read. During the final certification, the graduate must also understand the meaning of the read text. Whether it is a task to the text or the text itself.

Teachers working in grades 9 and 11 know that most mistakes are made due to misunderstanding of what is read, as well as when reading the assignment itself.

Teaching a child to read “correctly”, “effectively”, “productively” is an important task for a teacher. That is why the technology of productive reading (PRT), developed by Professor N. Svetlovskaya, acquires a leading role and contributes to the achievement of the results that are mentioned in the new standards.

The technology is universal and can be used in lessons of any cycle.

It is aimed at the formation of all universal educational activities: cognitive, communicative, regulatory, personal.

The technology of productive reading differs sharply from the traditional technology of transferring ready-made knowledge to a student. The teacher organizes the children's research work in such a way that they themselves "think" about solving the key problem of the lesson and can themselves explain how to act in new conditions. The teacher becomes a partner, a mentor, an observer.

The developed technology includes three stages of working with text, a three-stage process.

The goal of is the development of anticipation (the ability to guess, predict the content of the text). Task - to develop motivation for reading the text

1. Strategy "Forecast by headline".

Task: think about what can be discussed in the story of K.G. Paustovsky "Warm bread", in the work of P.P. Bazhov "Mistress of the Copper Mountain", etc.

– Try to predict the content by the first line of the story…Remember the name of the story….Does the content of the story match the title?

Give examples of such discrepancies.

Associative bush (circle, row). Today we will read and discuss the topic… What associations do you have about the stated topic?

2. Strategy "Brainstorm" ("Basket of ideas").

Task: answer the questions before reading the text (fairy tales "Warm bread") - What do you know about K. G. Paustovsky? What do you think the story will be about? Who can be the main character? What event in the story can be described.

3. Strategy "Image of the text".

Task: check your assumptions. Based on the words taken from the text, try to make a short plot story. The title of the story is given.

4. Strategy "Battery of questions".

Task: make up questions to the text according to the title, according to the illustrations.

5. Glossary strategy.

Task: look at the list of words and mark those that can be related to the text. When you finish reading the text, go back to these words and look at their meaning and the use of words used in the text.

6. "Competing with the writer" strategy.

Task: try to predict the content of the book by looking at the illustrations. One student offers his version, the rest complete it.

7. Strategy "True and False Statements".

8. Strategy I know, I want to know, I found out.

Stage 2 - stage of text activity.

The purpose of is to understand the text and create its reader's interpretation, summarizing part of the read text, asking questions of a general nature, making assumptions about the further development of the plot and the role of characters in the composition of the text, etc.).

The main task of is to ensure the full perception of the text. The main strategies at the stage of text activity are dialogue with the author, commented reading.

1. Strategy "Reading in a circle". The text is read in turn (each "circle member" reads a paragraph). After this, a stop follows: everyone asks questions to the read passage. If the question cannot be answered (it does not correspond to the text), then the question is considered incorrect. * All correct questions can be recorded.

2. Silent reading with questions strategy.

3. Strategy “Reading to yourself with notes. (Insert)" . Marginal notes: + - knew; - - new; ? - interesting; V is unclear. Others are possible: B - question; O - answer; Z - I know; N - new; And - interesting; X - I want to know; C - ask; U to clarify.

4. Strategy "Reading with stops". Reading the text with stops, during which tasks are given in the form of questions: some are aimed at checking understanding, others - at predicting the content of the next passage.

5. "Pose a problem - offer a solution" strategy. Remember what problems the heroes of the work face (the problem is formulated and written down in an oval). Next, the children can name several problems, students are divided into groups and offer all kinds of solutions to problems.

6. Strategy "Creating a question plan". The student carries out a semantic grouping of the text, highlights the strong points, divides the text into semantic parts and titles each part with a key question…….

Stage 3 – stage of post-text (post-text) activity.

The purpose of is to correct the reader's interpretation in accordance with the author's meaning.

The main task of is to provide in-depth perception and understanding of the text, to raise a question to the text as a whole, followed by a conversation, the result of which should be an understanding of the author's meaning. Re-addressing the title, illustrations, performing creative tasks.

2. Question tree strategy Crown – what? where? when? Barrel - why? How? Could you? Roots - how to relate the text to life? With current events? What is the author trying to show?

3. Strategy "Bloom's Cube" (Benjamin Bloom is a famous American teacher, author of many pedagogical strategies = technician).

The beginnings of the questions are written on the faces of the cube: “Why?”, “Explain”, “Name”, “Suggest”, “Think up”, “Share”. The teacher or student rolls the die.

It is necessary to formulate a question to the educational material on the side on which the cube fell.

The “Name” question is aimed at the level of reproduction, i.e. at the simple reproduction of knowledge.

Question "Why" - the student in this case must find cause-and-effect relationships, describe the processes occurring with a certain object or phenomenon.

“Explain ” question – student uses concepts and principles in new situations.

All of the above strategies provide for serious work with the text, its deep analysis and understanding, the organization of independent cognitive activity of students on educational material. socially moral experience and makes you think, knowing the world around you.

Technology Advantage:

1. Applicable in the lessons of any cycle and at any level of education.

2. Focused on personal development.

3. Develops the ability to predict the results of reading.

4. Promotes understanding of the text in the lesson.

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Semantic reading strategies and working with text

work with text".

The topic is relevant because reading plays a huge role in education, upbringing and human development.

Every person is obliged to take care of his intellectual development.

This is his duty to the society in which he lives

and to himself.

Reading is the main way of one's

intellectual development.

D.S. Likhachev

The global processes of informatization of society - the increase in the amount of textual information every year has put theorists and practitioners in the field of education before the need to develop new approaches to teaching reading.

It is necessary to prepare students for the rapid perception and processing of large amounts of information, mastery of modern means, methods and technologies of work.

Teaching children correct, fluent, conscious, expressive reading is one of the tasks of education. Currently, the reading skill of most children of middle school age is unconscious: this type of reading does not allow you to extract information from the text as much as possible, moreover, to understand it. There is a need to develop the skill of conscious reading.

In FGOS LLC one of the requirements for the educational process in the formation of UUD is formation of a semantic reading strategy and work with text :

• work with text: information search and reading comprehension;

• work with text: transformation and interpretation of information;

• work with text: evaluation of information.

In the scientific literature, “semantic reading strategies” are understood as various combinations of techniques that students use to perceive graphically designed textual information and process it into personal-semantic attitudes in accordance with the communicative-cognitive task. The essence of semantic reading strategies is that the strategy is related to choice and is formed in the course of the development of cognitive activity. The development of semantic reading abilities will help to master the art of analytical, interpretive and critical reading. Possession of semantic reading skills allows you to study productively from books always.

This means that in each subject, work should be carried out on the formation and development of semantic reading skills.

Semantic reading is such a quality of reading, in which an understanding of the informational, semantic and ideological sides of the work is achieved.

Work on the formation of skills and abilities of independent reading and understanding of the text must be started from the 2nd grade and carried out in the system, complicating the techniques and methods of reading and processing information from class to class.

There are various ways of meaningful reading. Here are the main ones: