Primary Reading Comprehension Help

Primary Reading Tips

Make Predictions

To help with comprehension of the material, make predictions before and while you read. When you make predictions before you start reading, you look at the pictures, captions, titles and headlines to determine what the story or article will be about. While reading, check your understanding of what you've read by predicting what will happen next in the story. Overall, making predictions helps with comprehension by keeping you engaged with what you're reading. When you're engaged, you tend to pay attention better, which leads to better understanding.

Recognize Story Elements

Comprehension will also be improved if you take the time to identify the common elements found in stories. Identifying story elements helps you to stay on track with what's going on in the story. There are three main elements to be aware of.

Characters

Characters are the people, animals or creatures found in stories. If there are no characters, you don't have a story.

Setting

Setting refers to when and where the story takes place. The setting can often play a major role in how characters feel, dress and act.

Conflict

Conflict is another word for the problem in a story. The main characters usually have some type of problem they are dealing with. Often, a story can have numerous problems, but there is usually a main one that has to be solved.

Summarize

When you summarize, you retell the story or part of the story in your own words. Doing this is a good way to make sure you're following the information properly. It helps to not only make summaries at the end of the story, but also while you're reading. You can check with your teacher or parents to make sure you've summarized the information correctly.

Compare and Contrast

You may also want to work on comprehension by comparing and contrasting what you've read. When you compare, you determine how two or more characters or aspects are similar or alike. When you contrast, you determine how two or more aspects are different. You can compare and contrast the story you're reading with one that you've read before or with a situation you've experience in real life. Comparing and contrasting helps you become aware of how information can be related in different reading materials. Furthermore, it forces you to pay close attention when you're reading, which often leads to better comprehension.