3rd Grade Comprehension Practice and Lessons

Helping Your Child Practice Comprehension at Home

Comprehension Skills Your 3rd Grader Needs

In the 3rd grade, your child will commonly need to ask and answer questions about texts, understand morals and themes in stories and describe a character's motivation. Your child will need to determine the meaning of new words based upon the context. Your daughter or son will also be required to think critically about ideas in texts and comprehend the difference between a narrative's point of view and his or her own.

Your 3rd grader must be able to distinguish between different types of texts and their parts. For example, your child will need to know what stanzas are in poetry. Similarly, books are divided into chapters, listed by the table of contents, and plays contain different acts and scenes.

Ask your child comprehension questions about the reading he or she does for school and for fun. For example, questions about character motivation and your child's personal opinions about them can be a good start. Questions like these can help your child think critically about texts from a unique perspective.

Practicing Listening Comprehension and Vocabulary

Listening skills will be useful for your child to have throughout his or her school career and adult life. You can help improve your child's listening comprehension at home by having conversations and discussions. Try telling your 3rd grader a story about an interesting event that happened to you. Then, ask your child for his or her opinion about your story.

The more words that your child understands, the more advanced texts he or she can read and comprehend. You can get lists of 3rd grade vocabulary from your child's teacher or from many websites. Quiz your child on vocabulary at home and make an effort to work new vocabulary into everyday conversation. A good way to help your child practice vocabulary is by creating flash cards and word lists.

Reading at Home

The more that your 3rd grader reads for pleasure, the greater his or her comprehension skills are likely to be. To encourage your child to read for fun, make sure there are many books around the house. If your child frequently sees books, he or she will be more likely to take an interest in them. Bring home books at your child's reading level or slightly above it from the library or bookstore.

Similarly, you can encourage your 3rd grader to read by allowing him or her to pick out books. There are many 3rd grade book lists available online. You can also probably get lists of books for 3rd graders from a library or from your child's school. Also, set aside time every day in which you read. This will demonstrate to your son or daughter that you think reading is important and fun.

Online 3rd Grade Comprehension Materials

Your child can practice her or his comprehension skills with online worksheets, activities and games. Your child can also complete the online reading comprehension activities found on many websites. Some sites will not only help your child practice comprehension skills, but will also provide activities for grammar, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, paragraph structure and sentence structure.

You can download practice reading comprehension assessments for your child as well. Monitor your child as he or she completes such assessments to gain a greater understanding of what areas your child needs help in. Many comprehension assessments are comprised of reading passages followed by multiple-choice questions.

In order to prepare for 3rd grade standardized reading tests, your child can practice with released online standardized tests. You can get sample tests from your state's Department of Education website, or you can print tests from a number of other sites. If you're having trouble finding standardized reading tests online, ask your child's teacher for more resources.