5th Grade Reading Comprehension

What Strategies Will Help My Child Improve 5th Grade Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills your child will learn in school because he or she will have to use it in virtually every school subject and aspect of life. If your child is struggling with 5th grade reading comprehension, the following strategies may help.

• When your child is reading a novel, encourage him or her to read the back of the book first. This short summary will provide a framework for comprehending the rest of the book.
• If unfamiliar words interfere with your child's overall comprehension of a text, show him or her how to use context to figure out the meaning of vocabulary words.
• He or she can use illustrations and photographs to figure out the meaning of confusing text.
• Encourage him or her to read captions and headings in non-fiction texts.
• Have him or her write a one to two sentence summary of each chapter in a textbook or novel.