6 Essential
Skills for Reading
Comprehension
Reading as a
Complex Process
The ultimate goal of reading is the comprehension, or
understanding what’s been read. The reading process is like
creating meaning from text by making connections between what
is already known (prior learning) and what is in the text.
Successful readers do much more than process information. They
bring their experience and prior learning, both in and out of
school, to their reading in order to construct meaning and develop
new understandings.
1. Decoding
Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge
of letter-sound relationships, including
knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly
pronounce written words. Understanding these
relationships gives children the ability to
recognize familiar words quickly and to figure
out words they haven't seen before.
What Can Help
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.
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2. Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read with speed,
accuracy, and proper expression (Rasinski,
2006). Being a fluent reader allows one to focus
on the content in the reading, rather than
focusing on the decoding of each individual
word. As children become fluent readers, they
are able to interact with text on a higher level.
What Can Help
As with other reading skills, kids need lots of
specific instruction and practice to improve word
recognition.
The main way to help build this skill is through
practice reading books. It’s important to pick out
books that are at the right level of difficulty for
kids.
3. Vocabulary
A vocabulary, also known as a wordstock or word-stock,
is a set of familiar words within a person's language.
Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading
process, and contributes greatly to a reader's
comprehension. A reader cannot understand a text
without knowing what most of the words mean. Students
learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through
everyday experiences with oral and written language.
What Can Help
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.
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.
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..
What Can Help
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.
Baguhin, Gerlyn
THANK
S!
Ursal, Edgardo
