Reading Comprehension Activities Part 1

The best reading comprehension activities cannot be found in a worksheet. Teaching reading strategies is best done when a teacher does guided oral literacy with students.

Use the guided oral literacy strategies below to take your students deeper into understanding what they read.

Before intervening in comprehension strategies, evaluate your students for any underlying difficulties in the reading communication domain.

They may need work on emerging literacy skills or vocabulary instead.

Easy Reading Comprehension Activities
for Every Classroom

A purposeful read aloud is the best technique out of all reading comprehension activities. It must be done systematically, with integrity and have comprehension skills and strategies built into it. A key element of reading comprehension activities is to understand how a variety of genres work - not all are "built" the same, and many students have difficulty conceptualizing the difference between reading a story and reading a factual text.

When reading factual texts, you must deliberately point out text features that aid comprehension, such as sidebars, diagrams, labels and graphs. Many children simply are not aware that these elements are important to the meaning of the text and don't even realize that they should read them.

This is often used when teaching reading strategies during guided reading mini-lessons.

As well, when you read aloud you are giving students the chance to practice response skills they will need to write in later. It is always easier to put ideas into writing after having the chance to orally express them, and discussion should be a central part of your read alouds. The worst thing you can do is have your class sit quietly and listen with no opportunity for reponse.

Finally, children who love to read are better readers. If you want to make a significant impact on your students, read aloud every day, at least three to four times. Choose books that kids love (and they aren't always the same ones you do). There will be plenty of time to choose deep, meaningful books later on. If your kids don't enjoy reading, you first need to hook them before you can do anything else.

Click here for a download of great books to use for interactive read alouds.

Often children view listening to or reading a text like a train that is roaring by them. They hear or read the words but do not slow down to envision what is actually happening.

Reading intervention strategies that generate mental images are critical for these kids to make gains. As well, students will find that they will not create the same images as their peers, thus bringing to light the fact that reading is a creative activity.

Students who cannot generate a mental image of a text need to be taught specifically how to do it. Here's how I do it:

Continue building a mental image in their minds. When you are finished, return their pictures to them and discuss how what they thought the dog was at first is very different from the image you created. Relate this to the concept of creating mental images to get important details when they read.

Once students gain familiarity with the concept of visualizing the text, select a passage that has rich, descriptive language. Read it aloud, and pause after each sentence. Think aloud to the class the images you are creating in your mind. After reading the passage, tell the class about your image from the text and invite them to add to it, or change it to fit what they saw.

The art of predicting is one of the best reading comprehension activities. Students predictions will be based on their background knowledge of the subject matter, so be sure to build it appropriately.

Being able to predict what will happen in a text sets up scaffolding for the students to build upon. Students should make predictions using the elements of the text, such as title, pictures, table of contents, and the back cover.

Continue making predictions as you read the story. Record these predictions on a T-Chart and revisit them during and after reading the text. A simple check-mark beside each prediction is enough to verify if the predictions were accurate or not.

If a child has difficulty making predictions, you should use reading intervention strategies to work on that specific skill.

One of the goals of teaching reading strategies is to help students be able to accurately summarize a text.

Story mapping is one of the reading comprehension activities that visually demonstrates a summary or retelling. A story map focuses on story elements: characters, setting, problem and solution. If I am working on a retelling, I will also include the main events.

To begin story mapping, choose a simple text with clear elements and few minor problems. This will make it easier for your students to conceptualize.

You can use a summary chart or draw each part out on large paper (if this is our class's first time for story mapping, I strongly suggest this). Allow the students to illustrate each story element, then put it together and orally re-tell the story.

When you are reading chapter books, you can add to the story map after every chapter or two. You will soon find that your map is lending itself to a written retelling. I also like to write the summary with the class first, then cut it apart, add in the main events, and put it all back together. This gives students a concrete experience in the differences between a summary and a retelling.

Many of these activities are also used as reading intervention strategies, as struggling readers need specific guidance in them.

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