How to Teach Reading Comprehension

Recently published a meta-analysis of 52 studies from English-speaking countries on what is most important for teaching reading comprehension. The study was published on May 20, 2023, titled The Active Ingredient in Reading Comprehension Strategy Intervention for Struggling Readers: A Bayesian Network Meta-analysis. The study stated that there is no single strategy that works the best. Just focusing on reading comprehension strategies did not show much of a benefit. What was shown as important were strategies that included background knowledge instruction.

Another article titled The Three Elements of Reading Comprehension was published on April 7, 2022, on the website Language magazine. It agrees that teaching reading comprehension as a single skill does not show much improved outcomes. Reading comprehension is a combination of decoding skills, vocabulary understanding, and background knowledge. So, through research, it shows teaching background knowledge is most important. Background knowledge building is most important for students to connect to what is written. Background knowledge connects to the child’s understanding.

So how do we teach reading comprehension? The first is to build children’s vocabulary. One way to build vocabulary is to write down the words the children do not know on index cards. Have the student define the word in their own words and pronunciation. Use the index cards with the individual student as flash cards. It is important to build vocabulary individually. Building vocabulary also develops background knowledge and vocabulary.

Second teaching the main idea, text structure, and retelling the passage is important. Since reading comprehension is really how the person understands what is written. It is important to make sure the child can comprehend the component parts of a passage. When a child reads a passage, make it a practice to identify the main idea. Children really need to identify how the passage is structured. Then be able to retell or summarize the passage. Teach the skills together so the students can fully express how paragraphs are built. Teaching the skills together will improve comprehension. Since you are making connections with the children.

The best way to improve reading comprehension is for the students to write. When the child writes he/she needs to have vocabulary to express what they want to say. They need to understand the text structure to write. They need to have a main focus for the paragraph in their writing. Writing needs to be a daily activity. Not just writing in a journal. Writing needs to be purposeful and specific. It needs to be done daily. The more the child writes the better readers they will become. The highest level of understanding is for a child to be able to express his/herself in written form. So, spend more time writing with a purpose than worksheets for reading comprehension.