What is the goal of developing good reading skills
6 Reading Comprehension Skills | Understood
Some people think of the act of reading as a straightforward task that’s easy to master. In reality, reading is a complex process that draws on many different skills. Together, these skills lead to the ultimate goal of reading: reading comprehension, or understanding what’s been read.
Reading comprehension can be challenging for lots of reasons. Whatever the cause, knowing the skills involved, and which ones your child struggles with, can help you get the right support.
Here are six essential skills needed for , and tips on what can help kids improve this skill.
1. Decoding
Decoding is a vital step in the reading process. Kids use this skill to sound out words they’ve heard before but haven’t seen written out. The ability to do that is the foundation for other reading skills.
Decoding relies on an early language skill called phonemic awareness. (This skill is part of an even broader skill called phonological awareness. ) Phonemic awareness lets kids hear individual sounds in words (known as phonemes). It also allows them to “play” with sounds at the word and syllable level.
Decoding also relies on connecting individual sounds to letters. For instance, to read the word sun, kids must know that the letter s makes the /s/ sound. Grasping the connection between a letter (or group of letters) and the sounds they typically make is an important step toward “sounding out” words.
What can help: Most kids pick up the broad skill of phonological awareness naturally, by being exposed to books, songs, and rhymes. But some kids don’t. In fact, one of the early signs of reading difficulties is trouble with rhyming, counting syllables, or identifying the first sound in a word.
The best way to help kids with these skills is through specific instruction and practice. Kids have to be taught how to identify and work with sounds. You can also build phonological awareness at home through activities like word games and reading to your child.
2. Fluency
To read fluently, kids need to instantly recognize words, including words they can’t sound out. Fluency speeds up the rate at which they can read and understand text. It’s also important when kids encounter irregular words, like of and the, which can’t be sounded out.
Sounding out or decoding every word can take a lot of effort. Word recognition is the ability to recognize whole words instantly by sight, without sounding them out.
When kids can read quickly and without making too many errors, they are “fluent” readers.
Fluent readers read smoothly at a good pace. They group words together to help with meaning, and they use the proper tone in their voice when reading aloud. Reading fluency is essential for good reading comprehension.
What can help: Word recognition can be a big obstacle for struggling readers. Average readers need to see a word four to 14 times before it becomes a “sight word” they automatically recognize.
Kids with dyslexia, for instance, may need to see it up to 40 times.
Lots of kids struggle with reading fluency. As with other reading skills, kids need lots of specific instruction and practice to improve word recognition.
The main way to help build fluency is through practice reading books. It’s important to pick out books that are at the right level of difficulty for kids.
3. Vocabulary
To understand what you’re reading, you need to understand most of the words in the text. Having a strong vocabulary is a key component of reading comprehension. Students can learn vocabulary through instruction. But they typically learn the meaning of words through everyday experience and also by reading.
What can help: The more words kids are exposed to, the richer their vocabulary becomes. You can help build your child’s vocabulary by having frequent conversations on a variety of topics. Try to include new words and ideas. Telling jokes and playing word games is a fun way to build this skill.
Reading together every day also helps improve vocabulary. When reading aloud, stop at new words and define them. But also encourage your child to read alone. Even without hearing a definition of a new word, your child can use context to help figure it out.
Teachers can help, too. They can carefully choose interesting words to teach and then give explicit instruction (instruction that is specialized and direct). They can engage students in conversation. And they can make learning vocabulary fun by playing word games in class.
For more ideas, watch as an expert explains how to help struggling readers build their vocabulary.
4. Sentence construction and cohesion
Understanding how sentences are built might seem like a writing skill. So might connecting ideas within and between sentences, which is called cohesion. But these skills are important for reading comprehension as well.
Knowing how ideas link up at the sentence level helps kids get meaning from passages and entire texts.
It also leads to something called coherence, or the ability to connect ideas to other ideas in an overall piece of writing.
What can help: Explicit instruction can teach kids the basics of sentence construction. For example, teachers can work with students on connecting two or more thoughts, through both writing and reading.
5. Reasoning and background knowledge
Most readers relate what they’ve read to what they know. So it’s important for kids to have background or prior knowledge about the world when they read. They also need to be able to “read between the lines” and pull out meaning even when it’s not literally spelled out.
Take this example: A child is reading a story about a poor family in the 1930s. Having knowledge about the Great Depression can provide insight into what’s happening in the story. The child can use that background knowledge to make inferences and draw conclusions.
What can help: Your child can build knowledge through reading, conversations, movies and TV shows, and art.
Life experience and hands-on activities also build knowledge.
Expose your child to as much as possible, and talk about what you’ve learned from experiences you’ve had together and separately. Help your child make connections between new knowledge and existing knowledge. And ask open-ended questions that require thinking and explanations.
You can also read a teacher tip on using animated videos to help your child make inferences.
6. Working memory and attention
These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known as executive function. They’re different but closely related.
When kids read, attention allows them to take in information from the text. Working memory allows them to hold on to that information and use it to gain meaning and build knowledge from what they’re reading.
The ability to self-monitor while reading is also tied to that. Kids need to be able to recognize when they don’t understand something. Then they need to stop, go back, and re-read to clear up any confusion they may have.
What can help: There are many ways you can help improve your child’s working memory. Skillbuilders don’t have to feel like work, either. There are a number of games and everyday activities that can build working memory without kids even knowing it.
To help increase your child’s attention, look for reading material that’s interesting or motivating. For example, some kids may like graphic novels. Encourage your child to stop and re-read when something isn’t clear. And demonstrate how you “think aloud” when you read to make sure what you’re reading makes sense.
More ways to help with reading comprehension
When kids struggle with one or more of these skills, they can have trouble fully understanding what they read. Find out how to tell if your child has difficulty with reading comprehension.
Learn about what can cause trouble with reading in kids. Keep in mind that having reading difficulties doesn’t mean a child isn’t smart. But some kids need extra support and encouragement to make progress.
Key takeaways
Decoding, fluency, and vocabulary skills are key to reading comprehension.
Being able to connect ideas within and between sentences helps kids understand the whole text.
Reading aloud and talking about experiences can help kids build reading skills.
Related topics
Reading and writing
8 Tips to Help Students Build Better Reading Skills
How can you ensure your students understand classroom coursework? Build reading skills. Teachers love to share their favorite stories and the subjects they are passionate about, but helping a child develop the same interest requires foundational reading skills to comprehend and enjoy the curriculum.
Many children see reading as a chore, especially if it’s tied to lesson plans and learning complex information. Teachers, parents and mentors can help ignite a child’s passion to read by incorporating activities focused on building reading skills to improve comprehension and engagement.
Here are some simple and effective ways to help students build reading skills to better understand classroom curriculum.
1. Annotate and highlight text
Teach your students to highlight and underline valuable information as they read. Have students write notes on the pages they are reading to help them stay focused and improve comprehension. Students can also write down questions as they read to receive more explanation on a new concept or to define a new word.
2. Personalize the content
Students can increase their understanding by seeing how the material connects with their life. Have your students make personal connections with the text by writing it down on the page. You can also help students comprehend the text by helping them see an association with current events.
3. Practice problem solving skills
Blend real-world problem solving skills into your curriculum. Have your students write out solutions to the problem and discuss their ideas as a class or in small groups.
4. Incorporate more senses
Add in activities that reinforce learning and comprehension by using more senses as they read. Remind students to read with a pen or pencil to annotate the text. Have your students take turns reading out loud. Use projectors to guide your lesson and write down questions for those who are visual learners.
5. Understand common themes
Ask your students to look for examples of a certain theme throughout the chapter to increase engagement. Have students share their findings with the class to help students learn a specific theme more in-depth.
6. Set reading goals
Have each student set their own reading goals. This can help them take action in building reading skills and students will be more mindful of how they are improving.
7. Read in portions
Long, complex reading can be more digestible by breaking it up into pieces. Shorter segments will help students retain the information as the class discusses the materials.
It can also help students build confidence in understanding a complex subject.
8. Let students guide their reading
Your students process reading material and curriculum in very different ways. As you implement reading activities to help your class learn complex materials, you will learn what works best for each student individually.
As teachers implement more reading activities into classroom coursework, students will find improvement in vocabulary, writing skills, problem solving, concentration, and cognitive development to help build a solid foundation for future learning.
Semantic reading: types, methods and techniques of teaching. Stages of formation of skills and abilities of semantic reading
Semantic reading is such a quality of reading, in which an understanding of the informational, semantic and ideological aspects of the work is achieved.
The purpose of semantic reading is to understand the content of the text as accurately and fully as possible, to catch all the details and practically comprehend the extracted information.
When a child reads really thoughtfully, then his imagination is sure to work, he can actively interact with his internal images. A person himself establishes the relationship between himself, the text and the surrounding world. When a child masters semantic reading, then he develops oral speech and, as the next important stage of development, written speech.
In the process of teaching semantic reading, younger students develop the following skills:
- understand text;
- analyze;
- compare;
- modify;
- generate (create texts for your goals and objectives).
Types of semantic reading.
There are the following types of reading:
- viewing;
- trial;
- studying;
- reflective.
Viewing reading is a type of semantic reading in which a specific information or fact is searched for.
Introductory reading is the type by which the main meaning, key information is determined in the text.
Learning reading is a type of semantic reading, in which, depending on the goal, complete and accurate information is searched for and its further interpretation. From everything written, the main thing is singled out, and the secondary is omitted.
Reflective reading is the most thoughtful reading. During this process, the reader anticipates future events by reading the headline or as they read.
Methods and techniques for teaching semantic reading.
The following methods and techniques are used to teach semantic reading:
Development of the ability to analyze the task.
Search for keywords in the task and the ability to read the instructions.
Answers to the questions (both written and oral).
Determining the sequence of events in the read text.
Formulation of simple conclusions after reading the text.
Converting the read text into a table.
Comparison of illustrative material with textual information.
Explaining various situations with the help of the read text.
The ability, based on the text read, to prove their point of view, to refute any statements.
Finding the necessary information in various information sources: dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, etc.
Stages in the formation of skills and abilities of semantic reading.
The work on the formation of the skills and abilities of semantic reading must be carried out in the system, complicating the techniques and methods of reading and processing information from class to class. What are the main steps to skip?
Working with unfamiliar words (explaining unfamiliar words).
The teacher must determine whether the children understand the meaning of individual words. He needs to clarify this while reading, so that the students develop the skill of independently highlighting unfamiliar words, the meaning of which needs to be deciphered.
Such words can be underlined and searched for their interpretation in the dictionary after reading, or the meaning is explained by the teacher.
A novice reader often does not clearly realize that there is a word incomprehensible to him in the text. Such a word slips in the context, leaving the illusion of clarity. Any teacher has come across this phenomenon by asking children a question after reading the text: “What words were incomprehensible?”. As a rule, children do not call such words. Finding out the meanings of a number of words from the read text convinces us that many of them were left out of comprehension. The practice of parsing words that exists at school is not effective enough, as children sometimes do not understand words that are very simple at first glance. Therefore, without excluding vocabulary work before reading, it is important for children to create an attitude towards independent selection of incomprehensible words when reading and finding out their meanings.
In the method of teaching text comprehension, the emphasis is placed on the fact that every word the child does not understand is like a red traffic light for him, preventing further movement.
| Example Vitaly Bianchi "Hare, Kosach, Bear and Spring" Read the concepts and interpretations of words and phrases. Color the pairs with the appropriate color. |
At the first stages of working with the text, it is necessary to interrupt reading to clarify words that are incomprehensible to children. Gradually, students get used to underlining incomprehensible words while reading. Then these words are discussed: is it possible to understand the word from the context or should a dictionary be used.
Working with keywords.
In any written material, there are certainly keywords, without which the meaning of the work is lost.
The teacher should help students find them and explain the need for application and the meaning that they carry. It will be interesting to work with keywords in this form: A teacher or a student reads a story, story or something else. Next, the teacher asks the children what main words they could highlight, and writes them down on the board, and the children in a notebook. After that, it is proposed to reproduce the read text using these keywords. You can write down such words as you read.
Comprehension of the text is seriously affected by inattention to the key, most important words in the text. Sometimes the meaning of the entire text depends on one word, and without a “hook” for this word, it is impossible to understand the text correctly.
It is necessary to draw the attention of children to such words when reading any text.
| Example Skrebitsky "White coat" Underline in the passage from the text the words that explain why the author called his text that way. The morning was quiet, the night before poured a lot of snow. The forest became white, shaggy. In an instant, our bunny in the snow-covered bushes disappeared. That's when he needed a white coat! |
Working with words-images.
It is impossible to enjoy reading a literary text without a sensitive attitude to words-images or artistic means found by the author of the work. Acquaintance with words-images, in which the secrets of the beauty of the text are hidden, begins with the concept of comparison. Comparison allows you to make the image that arises in the reader more vivid, complete, voluminous, but with a novice reader there is no need to discuss literary concepts, since this is not the main thing in understanding, the main attention should be paid to enriching the figurative range with the help of artistic means used by the author.
It is necessary to pay attention not only to words-images, but also to sounds, parts of words, forms or order of words.
Working with polysemous words.
Find well-known words in a different, unusual usage.
| The fork or knife must be handled very carefully because they are sharp. The mustard was so spicy that Vanya had tears in her eyes. Alyosha caught a cold and therefore did not go out with the guys. When Anna Ivanovna went out into the alley, the hooligans were gone. |
Working with phraseological units.
1. Replace the highlighted words in the sentence with phraseological units.
| Example Julia argued with her friend for a long time what to give Vera for her birthday. Finally, they agreed on (found a common language). Scientists worry and warn (sound the alarm): the earth is threatened by an ecological catastrophe. |
2. Determine which phraseological unit is suitable for this text.
| Example The dacha was located in a picturesque grove, in a very convenient place: a river flowed nearby (two steps away), and it was very close to the station (at hand). |
3. Make up a dialogue using phraseological units:
| Example - Did you solve a physics problem for a long time yesterday? - Yes, for a very long time. Did you decide right away? - For a long time ... (puzzled), but without the help of my older sister I could not do anything. |
The story of the proposal.
Read the sentence, think about it and write a short story about it. The principle of compiling a story is the unfolding of textual information.
| Example And then I felt so annoyed and so angry that I threw this diary behind a bookcase that was in our classroom. The parent meeting was approaching. Mom said that if everything is fine with my grades, then on Saturday we will go to the park. And I had a deuce in singing. I really did not want Maria Ivanovna to put this two in her diary, because then goodbye to the park. And when Maria Ivanovna was collecting her diaries, I didn't give her mine. At a big break, the boys and I ran into sports. Gym look newer exercise equipment. When we returned, I saw that my diary was lying on the desk and the deuce was standing like a pretty one in it. It turns out that Natasha, my classmate, saw my diary, decided that I accidentally forgot to give it for verification, and took the diary to the classroom. |
And then I felt such annoyance and was so angry that I threw this diary behind the bookcase, which was in our classroom. Application of the “dialogue with the author of the text” method.
Dialogue with the author of the text occurs as a result of active reading of textual information in order to understand the "mysteries" of the text, to discern the author's position, to realize one's attitude to this position. The dialogue often begins already when getting acquainted with the title of the work, and ends with an independent search for answers to questions that remained unresolved in the text. If we talk about the purposeful use of this method for educational purposes, it can be divided into several stages:
- looking for something that is not very clear in the text and formulating questions;
- predict the answers to the questions that have arisen and predict the further content of the text;
- self-test (we check our assumptions by checking them with the text).
Methodists consider the “dialogue with the author of the text” method to be the most significant at the stage before reading (work with the title) and during the reading of the text, as it activates the processes involved in understanding. After such a dialogue, it is much easier for the reader to move on to the analysis of those thoughts and feelings that the author wanted to share with the reader when creating his work.
Predicting the content of the text by heading sets the reader up for the perception of textual information.
In order for the dialogue to be meaningful and complete, the reader needs to do a variety of work in the course of reading: find direct and hidden author's questions in the text, ask their own questions, ponder assumptions about the further content of the text, check whether they coincide with the author's intention, turn on the imagination.
| Example A. The lesson begins with students thinking about the meaning of the title of the work: when do we talk about conscience? Probably when someone did something not very plausible. Something in this act makes us wary, to think about why this happened. According to conscience, did the person act? Should he have done otherwise? Why in some situations people are called shameless? These and similar questions arise when the reader tries to predict, anticipate the presentation of events in the text, i.e. thinks about what he will learn when getting acquainted with the work. Next comes the initial reading of the text. This is a very crucial moment in the lesson, because. it is at the first acquaintance with the text in the process of gradual immersion in it that a lot of questions arise that you want to find the answer in the work itself. How can this really happen in a dialogue lesson? The beginning of the work: "Nina Karnaukhova did not prepare a lesson . After reading this episode, the question immediately arises: why? Why didn't you prepare a lesson? Why did you decide not to go to school? Naturally, a chain of assumptions follows: I didn’t prepare a lesson because my head hurt, I was too lazy, I didn’t cope with the task, I sat down for lessons too late, etc.; decided not to go to school because... “But so that acquaintances would not accidentally see how she hangs out with books around the city during the working day, Nina sneaked into the grove.” After reading the episode, a natural question arises: how does a person feel who does something on the sly? Apparently very uncomfortable. He is all in tension, there is a desire to become invisible. When you do something furtively, it becomes ashamed. Probably, Nina, stealthily making her way into the grove, did not feel well. At such a moment, you involuntarily feel sorry for a person. I really don't want to be in his place. Let the children for some time, putting forward their assumptions, compare themselves with the hero of the work. This will help them in the future to better understand this situation, to analyze it in more detail. At this stage, younger students emotionally evaluate the situation, correlate it with their life experience. This happens every time you read an episode. At this stage, there is no analysis of the text in the full sense of the word. After all, this is the first reading, but it is carried out in a dialogue lesson by gradually “immersing” in the text, in the process of “talking with the author of the text”. Children should be able to independently find questions hidden in the text, stop reading when there are opportunities to predict further content. The task of the teacher at the beginning of teaching a dialogue with the author of the text is to stop reading when there is a direct or hidden question in the text and organize probable prediction, and in the course of reading, check the predictions of children. |
P.'s story Gaidar "Conscience". 
.. and decided not to go to school." 
The main thing is to teach to see essential information in the text and not to ask superficial questions. Development of reader's imagination.
Many difficulties in understanding and memorizing the text are associated with undeveloped imagination. The development of the reader's imagination involves working on both recreative and creative imagination.
You should train to “turn on” the imagination on small texts containing 1-2 figurative elements that are easy to recreate. Gradually, the number of such elements can be increased, proceeding to the reproduction of whole pictures. The task is to present what is being described and reproduce your ideas orally or in writing, in words or colors.
What methodological techniques can activate the reader's imagination?
Verbal and graphic drawing will be effective, especially on the material of those works that do not immediately generate visual images.
This applies to lyrical poems, texts saturated with complex psychological analysis or with an abundance of landscape sketches.
Work with illustrations by professional artists, their examination and analysis also plays a huge role.
Drawing up a filmstrip, a cartoon script, constructing literary characters from paper or plasticine, interior elements will also contribute to the "awakening" of the imagination.
We should not forget about the importance of such techniques as staging or dramatization, both of individual episodes and of the entire work. During this work, children will have to re-read the text more than once, paying attention to the details of the artistic space and time, portrait characteristics, descriptions of the behavior of the characters.
If possible, you need to draw the attention of a novice reader to how the author, with the help of words, helps us not only “see” pictures of the artistic world, but also “hear” the sounds of nature, the human voice, “breathe” the aroma of a forest or a warm summer evening.
To develop creative imagination, you can use the following tasks: come up with your heroes, your adventures, another ending for the work.
By teaching how to work with text, it is possible to form the initial forms of cognitive and personal reflection:
- if you consider how the text is printed, you can easily find books with poetry;
- by the name of the author, one can assume the subject and genre of the work;
- illustrations help distinguish between fairy tales and stories;
- the title helps to understand the theme and the main meaning of the book;
- how many works are in the book, and which ones, you can find out by the table of contents or content.
Consciousness of reading.
Reading comprehension involves the formation of the following skills:
- identify words and expressions in the text, the meaning of which is not clear, and be aware of the need to clarify their meaning;
- use footnotes and school explanatory dictionary;
- answer questions about the content with the words of the text;
- determine the emotional nature of the text;
- highlight key (the most important for reading understanding) words;
- rely on the author's remarks to characterize the characters;
- determine the motives of the characters' behavior by choosing the correct answer from a number of proposed ones;
- be able to predict the content of the text to be read;
- be aware of the author's and one's own attitude to the characters;
- formulate the topic of a short text;
- work with the title of the text: choose the most accurate title from all those offered, independently title the text, predict the content by the title and make statements according to the given title;
- identify semantic and emotional overtones;
- determine the idea of the work by choosing from a number of proverbs the one that most accurately expresses the main idea;
- find the main idea formulated in the text.
To test reading comprehension, offer different tasks to different students.
| Example Wonderful tree. The children arranged a holiday in the forest for birds and animals. On New Year's Eve, they decorated the Christmas tree with berries. The children tied pieces of bread to the upper branches. Carrots were attached to the lower branches. A head of cabbage was stuck under the tree in the snow. In the morning flocks of elegant birds flew in. They chirped happily, treated themselves to gifts. In the evening, two hares fussed under the tree near the head of cabbage. They ate tasty cabbages and sweet carrots. |
Task 1. Identify and tick off an item that is not mentioned in the story.
Task 2. Answer the question: For whom did the children dress up the Christmas tree?
Task 3.
Make a picture plan for retelling the text;
Task 4. Underline the sentence expressing the main idea of the text. To test reading comprehension, it is good to use deformed text.
| Example Hazel. There are many nuts among the carved foliage of the hazel. Each nut has a tight core, tasty and nutritious. Ripe [berries, fruits, nuts] - an incomparable delicacy, pick - and in the back! Just remember: many inhabitants of nature [fight, feed, throw] hazelnuts. Jays, nuthatches and [wolves, foxes, squirrels] hide them in reserve. Badgers and wild boars graze on them. [In summer, winter, autumn] nuts will save many of our furry and feathered friends from starvation. That is why it is necessary to protect the hazel, because they replenish the innermost pantries of the forest. |
Semantic reading presentation.
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