Adapting reading comprehension skills is essential for students of all ages, no matter if they are school-aged or still toddlers. Yes, if you start from picture books with toddlers, they will surely develop the habit of reading books, newspapers, and textbooks in the future.
Nowadays, teachers and tutors from all over the world are worried because students have reading problems and they take it as a chore. Now by reading problems we don’t mean they are not good at decoding words. We mean that they are unable to focus and understand the exact reason behind the text.
Do you want to know why? Because they lack comprehension and reading skills, they do speed reading, or they have trouble focusing on the text. If you are a tutor or parent who is concerned about the reading comprehension skills of their student and wants to make them an effective readers, congratulations! You have come to the right place.
In this post, we are going to share some effective tips and tricks that will help in improving the reading skills of your students. But before that, let’s take a brief look at why reading comprehension skills are important. Keep Reading!
Before diving into the importance, let us first clarify what reading comprehension is. So, reading comprehension is the ability to understand the actual meaning behind a text. In simpler words, reading comprehension is understanding and processing the meaning of the text.
With reading comprehension skills, you can turn the words into ideas and thought processes. For example, if your student knows and remembers every detail of a book he read, it means that the child’s reading comprehension is remarkable.
If you are a concerned teacher or a tutor, we are sure you want to improve the reading comprehension of your students, and that too with the help of effective ways. Don’t worry, we have done the work for you!
Here are some effective ways teachers and tutors can help make their students develop reading comprehension. Read on!
The first and foremost thing you need to do is encourage your students to read – and if you are tutoring or teaching young children, that would be even better. You will be able to build a foundation in them and it would be easy to encourage reading comprehension in them.
You can suggest some books to your students (according to their age), tell them good things about those books so they get curious to read those books.
When and if your students read the books you suggested, you need to arrange a detailed asking and answer questions session with them. In this session, discuss the important or even minor parts of the book. This way, you will know their comprehension reading level. Also, the discussion will help in keeping the book fresh in their mind.
Next, if you want your students to build reading comprehension skills, try to surround them with books as much as you can. Yes, we know you won’t be able to do that alone as a tutor/teacher, but you can ask for their parent’s help in this regard. Or, you can conduct the lessons with book references so that they are bound to read books.
By ‘surrounding your students with books’ we didn’t mean only hard copies. It is 2022, and the world is all digital now. You can send links to online resources of books and reading material to your students to read.
After you give them the online resources or books, set some kind of reading goals for them as well. This will make them read more mindfully and become a more effective reader.
If you are dealing with young readers or children, using visual aids while they are reading is one of the best ideas! This way, they will be able to build a picture in their minds, they would be able to understand the meaning behind what they are reading/listening to, and most importantly, reading comprehension would become a fun activity for them.
No matter how much you try, students will always lose track of what they are reading if they come across unfamiliar words. Therefore, teachers should work on the vocabulary of their students so that they have a better understanding of what they are reading. Also, learning new vocabulary and words will help them in many more ways as well.
To work on their vocabulary, ask the students to write the difficult or new words they are not understanding, and later tell them the meaning of all those words. Trust me; word recognition is the key to learning!
If you want to improve reading comprehension in your student, start implementing thinking strategies to encourage and stimulate them. Some of the key ideas and strategies you can use are:
These thinking strategies and making predictions encourages students and readers to focus more on the material while thinking critically with their full attention. Also, you can further use these strategies as reciprocal teaching after implementing them.
Never ask the kids to read all the material in one go, especially when it is complex. Instead, ask them to read the material in portions so that they have a better understanding of every word. Moreover, this practice will also build up confidence in kids that they are able to understand the complex text as well.
Last but not the least, ask your students to always highlight the points they find important while reading. Highlighting the important parts will help them to stay focused while improving their reading comprehension.
Now that you have gone through the entire post, we are sure you know how to improve the reading skills of your students. It can be a long and tedious process, but trust me; it will be rewarding! If you are looking for more tutoring tips, feel free to explore our blog.
