Tips for Developing Reading Comprehension Skills

1. Preview the Text: Look through the text before starting to read, to get an idea of what it is about. Previewing can help to activate existing knowledge and build expectations.

2. Identify Key Ideas and Details: Pay attention to the main ideas, and key details that help support them. Identify the purpose of reading, and read actively to find these ideas.

3. Use Context Clues: Use context clues to identify unfamiliar words or phrases from the text. Try to determine the meaning of words using the context in which they appear.

4. Focus on Understanding the Structure of the Text: Notice how the text is structured, and how the author uses paragraphs, headings, and other features to organise information. Familiarity with the structure can help navigate the text and retain information.

5. Make Connections: Build connections between what is read accordingly, notice relationships among ideas, and tie them together to form new meanings. Making connections can help integrate new information and identify how this new information can fit with the existing knowledge.

6. Summarise the Information: Try summarising different paragraphs or sections of the text to check if key points have been understood correctly. Summarising can also help prepare for writing assignments or can aid in retaining the most important pieces of information.

7. Ask Questions: Ask questions about the text to encourage critical thinking and encourage exploration. Try to generate questions that require deeper comprehension, instead of simply answering ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

By consistently using these tips when reading, one can develop better reading comprehension skills. These tips can help increase focus and retention, and provide a deeper understanding of the material. Register Today! Teacher Ana is here to empower your child to succeed.