Teaching reading comprehension is all about understanding what you are reading

When teaching reading, first you teach phonics so your children can decode the words into sounds then you start teaching reading comprehension. That is - they have to learn what the words mean. That

means bringing in a lot of grammar rules and sentence structure.

But there is an easier way and that is reading aloud at night to your children.

And after you have finished a page or so, or a chapter, ask you child to tell you want happened in the story. This way you will know if they understand what is happening in the story. Do not assume that your child understands. Or you might be pleasantly surprised one day when you child says something about the story and you suddenly realize that they got it all wrong. So in this case it is not better to be pleasantly surprised.

Another slight problem that can pop up is when your child is reading the words using phonics they are not saying the word fast enough to turn it into the correct sound.

So they don’t know what the word is. Here I keep saying “Faster, faster say the word faster” and you will see their face light up when they understand the word. When you are teaching reading comprehension you will need to do a lot of explaining about words and sentences.

Just remember your children are looking up to you as someone who knows everything, so don’t disappoint them. Always answer the questions as best you can and never ever say, “That is a stupid question” as that could put your child off asking any more questions. Also, what we think as stupid, your child just doesn’t know.

For more information about phonics courses I recommend including a Montessori course see our Teach Reading page.