A Note to Parents:

In order for readers to be successful, they have to be engaged, motivated, active and read for authentic purposes. Successful readers use schema, but are able to modify their schema when they are learning new information. Successful readers link their prior knowledge to what they are reading to improve comprehension. This is why our teachers have been working with comprehension strategies to help children understand what they read. There is no reading, if there is no meaning. The following comprehension strategies can be a focus for your child as they read aloud at home.

Making Connections

Asking questions

Visualizing

Drawing Inferences

Determining important ideas

Synthesizing information

Monitor and Repair Understanding

Here's a good way to get students to use the comprehension strategies at home.

Each time we read together, we can start by saying:

• As we read we are going to work on a strategy. As we read, let's see if we are able to ____________________. (fill in a strategy here)
• When your child uses a strategy and names which strategy was used ask them to explain their thinking behind that strategy.
• At the end of the reading, ask them to explain to you how using the strategy helped them to better understand the story.

Explanation of Comprehension Strategies:

1. Making Connections:                                                                                                                                                                                         Text to Self- a connection between what they are reading and some personal experience.                                                                           Text to Text- a connection between two stories or pieces of text they have read.                                                                                           Text to World- a connection between something they read and something they know about in the world.
2. Asking questions: Children are used to answering questions we ask them about a story, but what's more important is if they ask themselves questions in their minds as they are reading. Those questions, whether they are answered or not, help them go deeper in their understanding of a story or piece of text. 
3. Visualizing: One of the best things to do for visualizing is to read aloud to your children and ask them to explain the picture they see in their mind as you read. Ask them to explain what caused them to have that visualization.
4. Drawing inferences: Ask your children to make an inference by predicting what they think will happen next. Also, ask them to make inferences about the story or piece of text by taking the clues the author gives them and adding things they already know to figure out what the author is really trying to tell them. 
5. Determining important ideas: Ask your children to tell you what the most important ideas in the piece of text and what makes them think that those ideas are important.
6. Synthesizing information: This is a tough one, but children can do this after they have had some time working with strategies.
7. Monitor and Repair Understanding: This is a very important strategy because sometimes children do not even realize when they are reading that they are not getting the idea of the story or piece of text. If we get children to stop as they go along and give a quick summary of what they have read, we can help them see if they are on the right track or if they are confused. If they are confused we can either reread, read on, ask questions, use picture clues, or discuss the story or text together- all of these are ways we can repair our understanding.    

  Happy Reading ~    J