6th Grade Help: Reading Comprehension in Stories and Word Identification

Tips for 6th Grade Reading Help

Visualize the Material

Authors usually do a pretty good job of describing their stories for you. It's up to you to focus on those descriptions and see the pictures in your mind. Visualizing while you read helps you stay focused on the material and remember it better. It also makes reading more interesting and enjoyable.

Stop and Make Predictions

Another good idea is to stop occasionally to make predictions and guess what's going to happen next based on the story so far. When you make predictions, you're keeping yourself engaged with your reading, which helps improve your reading skills. This also helps you gauge how well you're following the story by reading on and seeing if your prediction was correct or close to what actually happens.

Use Context Clues

While reading, you will often come across words that are unfamiliar, difficult or have multiple meanings. When that happens, you need to use the context clues provided in the material. Context clues are sentences, words and examples the author uses to help you understand those challenging words. They're usually found in the same sentence or paragraph as the word. So, when you get to a word that causes you to pause, read on and see if you can figure out its meaning based on the clues in the story.

Look Up Words in the Dictionary

When context clues don't help, keep a dictionary handy to look up a word. Sometimes, you can still get the point of a sentence without knowing the definition of certain words. Other times, it is important to know what key words mean or you may have problems understanding the story you're reading. If that's the case, use your dictionary. This helps you better comprehend what you're reading, improves your skills with using a dictionary and increases your vocabulary.

Slow Down

Finally, slow down. Sometimes, you don't understand sentences you read or get caught up with difficult words because you're reading too fast. Your brain is not receiving enough time to process the material and understand it. Take the time to slow down, and you may start understanding your reading material better.