Kindergarten Reading Skills | Reading Comprehension
The Effects of Read Alouds on Student Comprehension. The focus of this study was to determine how interactive read alouds effect student comprehension with the claim being that they increase comprehension scores. Through the use of observation, interviews, questionnaires, and comprehension questions, data was collected. Reading aloud can provide children with an opportunity to learn phrasing of sentences and develop fluency in English. It also helps to increase a child’s interest in reading and nurture his creativity. When a child reads aloud, his comprehension skills automatically improve as he gains knowledge about phonics and word building. What to Do: Read-alouds are a great way to get students thinking critically, including making inferences and predictions. Lang, a K–8 curriculum coordinator and former reading specialist for Wisconsin’s Oconomowoc school district, creates anchor charts to encourage debate about texts through “accountable talk” sessions.
Comprehension is gaining meaning from what you read. This is a complex higher-level thinking skill, but children from a very early age can begin thinking about what they have just read and tell you what a story is about. When children read, they must turn their “minds on” and actively think about the meaning of what they are reading.
The goal for Kindergartners is to understand the book they read and the books that are read to them. Children show their understanding by telling you about the characters, setting and important events from the story. If the book is nonfiction, they can retell you the important facts from the book. Students can answer questions about what they read or heard and even act out a story.
Read At Home Everyday
Reading at home for enjoyment is the best and easiest daily routine you can do to help strengthen your child’s understanding of stories. Asking simple questions about the characters and talking about best parts of a book get your child thinking about the story and making connections to their own life.
Keep it Light
Conversations about books should be fun. Quizzing a child for correct answers after reading their favorite book can suck the joy out of the reading experience. Instead, try to ask questions from a place of curiosity and wanting to know what your child thinks. This makes them feel that their opinions and thoughts have value.
Use the Five Finger Strategy
After reading a story, use your hand to help you remember the most important elements of the story. This technique can be used for people ages 4 to 94!
- Characters – Who was in the story?
- Setting – Where did the story take place?
- Events – What happened in the story?
- End – How did the story end?
- Your Take – What was your favorite part?
Process It
When reading with your child, a great technique is to pause after a few pages and check in to see if your child is truly grasping what they are reading. Asking open-ended questions allows them to explain their thinking. If what they tell you does not match the story, you can help redirect them back on track:
You say, “Did you see the wolf dressed up in the grandmother’s clothing? Why is the wolf doing this?”
Your child says, “I don’t know….Maybe the wolf likes dressing up.”
You say, “Do you see the wolf licking his lips and drooling? What does it mean when you see our dog doing that? Do you think the wolf is hungry? What might the wolf be trying to do?”
3 Seconds of Wait Time
Allow your child enough undisturbed “think time” to process what is happening. If you ask a question about the story, let them look at the pages and take a few moments to think, at least 3 seconds. We typically only wait one second before jumping in with the answer. Providing answers too quickly takes away a child’s “thinking time”, robbing them of the opportunity to form conclusions on their own.
Different Ways to Read
Books are the best way to expose children to new vocabulary, stories and higher-level thinking skills. But reading on their own is not the only way for children to access stories. Read alouds and audio books offer the same benefits and let children enjoy a great book. The NC Kids Digital Library offers hundreds of picture read alouds that let your child hear stories and build their pre-reading skills.
The best way to build your comprehension skills is by using books or magazines and asking questions to get your child thinking about what they just read. It doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple “What happened to that character?” or “What was that story about?” are great questions.
Worksheets can feel like meaningless “work” and may take away your child’s enthusiasm for reading. For this age, worksheets do not need to be completed in order to build excellent comprehension skills.
If you choose to use them during breaks from school or if your child shows interest in them, try to make it a fun and light activity. Pretend like you’re on a game show and your child is earning points for a special prize at the end (You win 10 more minutes of free time after your bath!)
These passages are well suited for end of Kindergarten or first grade. Parents can read the sentences aloud or read them together with their child.
Reading books online, interactively, feels just like playing a fun computer game and helps your child build their reading comprehension skills.
NC Kids Digital Library (Free, requires library card number)
Go to “Collections” and select “Read Alongs” to choose from hundreds of picture books that will read aloud as your child follows along in the story.
Libby, by Overdrive (Free app for iPhones and iPads, Google Play, or Windows Mobile)
This app can be used on your phone or tablet to access the NC Kids Digital Library read along books for free.
Reading aloud to children before they can even talk is one of the most important elements in literacy development. It develops important skills like recognizing letters and story elements, and it helps children understand that printed type represents the spoken word. Reading aloud also benefits school-age children as they build the foundations of lifelong learning.
Benefits for Teachers
Reading aloud is not just for English classrooms. Teachers in any subject can improve children’s literacy development by reading classroom texts aloud. When a teacher reads aloud, it can help children develop phonological awareness, which is the ability recognize the structure of language. There are students at every grade level who struggle with literacy development, so reading aloud can help them correct those deficits.
Teachers can also expand students’ vocabulary by reading texts with new or unfamiliar words. Teachers can introduce those words correctly, which helps students understand pronunciation and meaning without working through the uncertainty of encountering the words on their own.
Another benefit of teachers reading aloud is that they can stop at certain points of the text and check for understanding or facilitate discussion among the students. The teacher can determine the flow of the story or text and model how to learn from it.
Comprehension Read Aloud
Benefits for Students
Having students read aloud is a straightforward way to advance literacy development. Sometimes, in higher-level classes, students prefer to read aloud because the combination of reading and listening can help them understand the text. These classes can lend themselves to more challenging texts and deeper discussions. When students hear their peers read texts out loud, it can expand their vocabulary and fluency by combining the reading knowledge of the entire classroom. However, whether a teacher should let struggling readers read aloud in class is a topic of debate.
On the one hand, letting struggling readers read aloud in class benefits their literacy development; on the other hand, other students may become bored and read ahead on their own. To help accommodate this diversity of reading abilities, teachers can preview the text with struggling readers and give them shorter sections to read aloud. They can also help them sound out words one-on-one, which can help them develop the confidence to read in front of their peers.
When a student struggles with reading aloud, it is important to let them try to sound out words on their own to develop phonological awareness. Teachers can help position readers of all abilities for success by pronouncing new vocabulary words before asking students to read them on their own — they can also demonstrate the words’ usage in sample sentences.
If a student’s literacy development is a few grades behind his or her classmates’, it can be difficult for him or her to catch up in just one school year. Encouraging reading outside the classroom, reading with parents, and reading aloud can help these students overcome the deficit.
Reading aloud is an essential skill. Parents who begin reading stories to their children at a young age can accelerate their children’s literacy development. However, teachers should still expect struggling readers in every class. Reading aloud with the students and modeling vocabulary can help readers at all levels by expanding vocabulary and modeling usage.
Learn more about the University of Texas at Arlington online M.Ed. in Literacy Studies program.
One Moose Twenty Mice Read Aloud Comprehension
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