Teaching Reading Comprehension: 14 Techniques

In order to process and comprehend other’s writings students must have reading comprehension skills. This skill allows students to make intelligent conclusions and insightful connections. These abilities are crucial for the successful growth of students. And so for this, you may foster student’s growth and support their academic gains by learning engaging and enjoyable strategies for assisting them with their reading. This article explains the significance of reading comprehension skills and offers 14 original strategies to help your students develop these abilities while having fun.

Why are reading comprehension skills so important?

Because they enable students to apply what they read to create original ideas, sincere reactions, and intimate connections, reading comprehension skills are crucial. Their younger talents can be useful in their future relationships, aspirations of further education, and work prospects. In teaching jobs, making pupils learn necessary skills is the most crucial responsibility to execute.

14 methods for teaching reading comprehension

Here are some suggestions to consider if you are in teaching job and seeking for novel approaches to enhance your student’s reading comprehension abilities-

• You can make it a game contest

Making a talent entertaining is one of the finest ways to teach students the skill. You can instruct kids on the components of a tale and ask them to put disparate sentences together into a paragraph using a template. Alternately, have teams compete to name as many characters, settings, objects, and character traits from a story as possible.

• Allow them to read a book they find interesting

Students are more likely to connect with a subject when they are passionate about it. Make time for students to learn more about their interests. As a teacher, you can invite your students to bring in a work they wish to learn more about or offer portions you think they might find interesting.

• Ask students to write a review of what they read

Ask students to spend a few minutes journaling about what they read after they finish a reading assignment. Ask them to write any questions they may have, or perhaps just anything the story reminded them of. As a teacher, you can also invite them to share their thoughts on the text after they've had time to consider it.

• Ask students to  submit a reading assignment to the class

Having recently studied material taught to students often aids in their internalisation of knowledge and fosters fresh connections with the text. As a teacher, you can assign each student in a small group or classroom a brief text about something fascinating. After that, have them share what they've learned with the class.

• Hold discussions in groups

An excellent technique to introduce new perspectives and ideas into discourse is through group discussions. Students may be inspired to approach reading in novel ways after hearing how another student has interpreted an assignment. Some students may question the significance of a story element or relate it to a situation in their own lives. You can assist students in making fresh connections and engaging with their reading.

• Celebrate your winners

When students successfully understand story elements or text details, acknowledge their accomplishments to help them feel proud of their abilities. Encourage a student by praising a link they made in the story or their ability, to sum up what they read. Increasing pupils' self-esteem can make reading more enjoyable and motivate them to keep improving their abilities.

• Distinguish reading skills from reading comprehension skills

Reading comprehension tests may cause anxiety in your students if they have reading difficulties or are not on the same academic level as the rest of the class. You can encourage them to learn a new ability without drawing attention to the fact that they struggle with another by isolating reading comprehension from reading skills.

• Organise quizzes

Pop quizzes might encourage students to consider details they might have missed in the narrative. You may, for instance, assign a text that is suitable for their age and give them a quiz about minor nuances they could have missed. Consider awarding prizes to the student who is the first to correctly answer all the questions after rereading the text to make the quiz more enjoyable.

• Ask them to compose a piece in their own words

This technique asks students to summarise a piece in their own words, much like the journaling practice. Encourage them to think of creative ways to express what the author meant while maintaining the same idea. This can make it difficult for them to engage with the material and interpret vocabulary that they might not ordinarily use while writing.

• Recognize underlying challenges

Students who have trouble with reading comprehension frequently have more serious underlying learning difficulties. Students may struggle to hear others or have weak vocabularies or verbal skills. In such cases, assist the student in resolving the problem before subjecting them to material that will be too difficult for them. 

• Help them comprehend unfamiliar phrases

By providing kids with methods for discovering the meaning of words they don't know, you can encourage them to interact with new vocabulary. Show students how to look for context clues for unfamiliar words and gather theories about what a word might mean. Dictionaries are frequently excellent resources as well.

• Ask students to illustrate what they read

While having students write about their reading can be a great way to help them process what they've read, as a teacher you can also encourage them to express themselves in other ways. Ask students to illustrate something they've just read. They can learn the abilities necessary to extract all the information from a piece of writing by being assisted in making connections to the texts.

• Encourage them to create their own plans of action

Every person learns in a different way, therefore one student's approach may not be effective for another. Encourage students to apply the techniques that are most effective for them by teaching them specific strategies. The ultimate objective is to increase their reading comprehension. They might do this by making notes in the book, and asking themselves questions while they read.

• Ask them to finish a story

Giving children a portion of a narrative and asking them to come up with an ending is another entertaining and engaging activity you can undertake with them. They can imagine what would happen next by using details from the text that is presented. Students can even be encouraged to come up with absurd endings and present them to the class.