7 Reading Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is perhaps the most important skill your student will ever learn. And it’s not easy. At first, the struggle to read individual words is an almost painful experience—your student must concentrate so hard to identify each letter and its correct sound. It might take several seconds to read just one word. Thankfully, with practice reading gets easier, but improving reading comprehension involves so much more than just learning to pronounce an individual word correctly. We want students to understand the message of the words on the page. That’s why teaching reading comprehension strategies is so important.

What is reading comprehension?

Simply, reading comprehension is the ability to extract the author’s message from a text. It begins with being able to understand the meaning of the exact words on a page. As students grow in their reading ability, they should also be growing in their reading comprehension skills and be able to interact with a text on higher levels to analyze and evaluate it.   

The importance of reading comprehension

Students who struggle with reading comprehension don’t understand the meaning of text and don’t enjoy reading, so their reading ability stagnates. It is vitally important that we as educators strategically teach students reading comprehension skills when they are very young—even before they can decode words. Otherwise, they may struggle throughout their academic journey.

As Christian educators, we should be particularly motivated to teach our students reading comprehension skills because God has chosen to communicate to us through His written Word. If we want our students to grow in faith and in their understanding of God, they need to be able to read their Bibles with understanding as they grow and mature.

What causes reading comprehension problems?

There are several reasons why a student may struggle with reading comprehension. Weak decoding skills (the ability to put together phonetic sounds to read an individual word) will certainly affect reading comprehension. Students will also struggle if they have poor vocabularies and don’t know what individual words mean. Students may also have reading comprehension problems if they have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, vision problems, or hearing loss.

Reading comprehension strategies

If your student is struggling with reading comprehension, don’t despair. Having a struggling student does not mean that you are a failure as a teacher. And thankfully, there are several strategies that you can use to help your student develop reading comprehension skills.

1. Teach students to use context clues to read and understand unfamiliar words.

Students who are just learning how to read often come across words they have never read before. We should encourage them to “read” the illustrations and the surrounding words to see if they can guess the unfamiliar word. Often they will be able to figure it out, but even if they don’t, they have practiced the valuable skill of using context clues to figure out what an unfamiliar word might mean.

Encourage the development of this skill in every grade level.  Whenever you introduce students to new vocabulary words, use those vocabulary words in context sentences and see if your students can formulate a definition of the word based on the context.

2. Provide students with necessary background information before reading a text.

Sometimes students need some background information to understand what they are reading. For example, in Reading 4 Voyages, students read the book Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914. To completely understand the selection, students need to have a basic knowledge of World War 1.

Younger readers may need concrete examples of some of the things they are reading about. For example, in Reading 1, students read a story about an elk. My daughter knew that an elk was an animal, but she had never seen one before, so we watched a short informational video about elk before reading that selection.

3. Give students a purpose for reading.

It often helps struggling students to have specific information to look for while they are reading. For example, in Reading 2, students read the historical fiction book Hill of Fire. Every few pages, the teacher should ask the students to look for specific information, directing them to “read to find out what happens when the farmer and his son plow the field” or “read to find out what the people in the village do because of the dangerous volcano.”

4. Allow students to read silently for comprehension before asking them to read orally.

When students read orally, they are often so focused on pronouncing individual words correctly that they miss the meaning of those words. Allowing them to read silently first will give them an opportunity to focus on meaning and will allow them to read orally with better fluency and more understanding.

5. Have students make predictions as they read.

It’s important to encourage students to make predictions as they read because it encourages them to pay attention to clues such as chapter titles, headers, illustrations, etc. and think about what they might read about next. Because the students are interacting with the text as they make and revise their predictions, they will be more engaged and more likely to understand what they are reading.

6. Teach students how to use organizational strategies.

A lot of students can benefit from learning how to use graphic organizers while they read. Some particularly helpful ones include

• KWL chart—these help students think about what they already know about a topic, formulate questions to answer while they read, and give them a space to record what they learned.
• Venn diagrams and T-charts—these can help students compare and contrast.
• Timelines—these help students keep track of the chronology of events.
• Word webs—these help students organize story details such as the characteristics of a particular character or a setting.

7. Use leveled questioning after reading to deepen understanding.

The use of leveled questioning helps your student interact with a text in a meaningful way. It makes students think beyond the simple meaning of the exact words on a page and helps them discern what the author is trying to communicate.

Which strategy would most likely improve a student’s reading comprehension?

Leveled questioning is critical for building reading comprehension skills. As students learn to find information within a text, interpret that information, and evaluate it, they will come to a deep understanding of the author’s message.

Best reading strategies for preschool

• Before and during a read-aloud, encourage students to make predictions about the story.
• After reading aloud to your students, ask them questions about what you read. 
• Have students sequence a story using pictures.
• Have students use pictures to tell their own story.

Best reading strategies for elementary school

• Before reading, introduce new vocabulary words using context sentences to teach students how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Break up reading selections into manageable chunks.
• Before reading each chunk, give students a purpose for reading.
• Have students read silently first.
• Encourage students to make predictions as they read.
• After reading, use leveled questioning to assess and deepen understanding.

Best reading strategies for middle school

• Teach literary devices such as plot structure, character development, symbolism, and figurative language to deepen students’ understanding and appreciation.
• Encourage students to use context clues to guess at the meaning of unfamiliar words and to keep a list of those words to look up later.
• Encourage students to ask questions and make predictions and inferences as they read.
• Use leveled questioning to assess and deepen students’ understanding.
• Give students opportunities to compare works of literature.
• Give students opportunities to evaluate the author’s message.
• If possible, encourage students to work collaboratively on creative projects that demonstrate their understanding of a text.

Best reading strategies for high school

• Teach literary devices such as plot structure, character development, symbolism, and figurative language to deepen students’ understanding and appreciation.
• Encourage students to ask questions and make predictions and inferences as they read.
• Encourage students to use context clues to guess at the meaning of unfamiliar words and to keep a list of those words to look up later.
• Use leveled questioning to assess and deepen students’ understanding.
• Give students opportunities to evaluate the author’s message and skill in communicating that message.
• If possible, encourage students to work collaboratively on creative projects that demonstrate their understanding of a text.

Reading comprehension skills

To have strong reading comprehension skills, students need:

• A Strong Phonics Foundation
  Students struggling to decode individual words will inevitably struggle with reading comprehension. Phonics instruction shouldn’t be limited to kindergarten—often students need to systematically review phonics generalizations until second or third grade.
• A Strong Vocabulary
  Comprehension starts with being able to understand the meaning of individual words. Students need to be taught how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of individual words and how to look up words to gain a full and complete understanding of the nuanced meaning of the word.

How to increase reading speed and comprehension

A good way to increase your students’ reading speed without sacrificing comprehension is to teach them to skim through the text to get an idea about the text’s organization and structure before they start reading. As they read, have them break occasionally to monitor their own comprehension. Can they summarize what they just read? You will also want to ensure that the reading environment itself is free from distractions. It may be helpful to play some soft music in the background to discourage students from vocalizing (saying or mouthing words out loud as they read.

Levels of reading comprehension

There are three basic levels of reading comprehension: literal, inferential/interpretive, and critical/evaluative. Teachers can use these levels to formulate questions to assess how much a student comprehends what he or she is learning.

Level 1: Literal

Literal questions are designed to assess the most basic level of comprehension—the answers are easily found in the text itself. For example, one of the first questions in The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy (featured in Reading 2) is “What is Petey?”

Even though it’s sometimes tempting to skip over these “duh” questions, we need to ask them because we need to make sure that our students are reading carefully and are understanding what they read.

Level 2: Interpretative/Inference

Interpretive/inference questions are designed to get students to use the text to draw conclusions. For example, in The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, I might ask why Petey’s mother is worried after she returns without a boy for Petey. The text doesn’t spell it out; students have to infer the reason from the conversation Petey and his mother have.

Level 3: Critical/Evaluative

Critical/evaluative questions require students to think beyond what is stated in the text to make evaluations, applications, and predictions. For example, in The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, I might ask “Why do you think the boy Petey found is outside by himself?” or “Why do you think the lady allows Petey to come inside?” Often, these types of questions lead to biblical-worldview building opportunities as we apply the Bible to what we’re reading.

Reading comprehension goals

We all want our students to improve their reading comprehension, but how do we assess their progress?

1. Use leveled questioning to gauge how deeply they are understanding and thinking about the text.
2. Use age-appropriate projects such as book reports in younger grades, literary essays in middle grades, and longer papers in high-school.
3. Have your students take standardized tests annually and see how they progress in their reading comprehension skills.

Using reading comprehension strategies will almost certainly result in higher reading comprehension skills. And the more students comprehend what they are reading, the more they will love to read and the more likely they will become lifelong readers and lifelong learners.