Comprehension (english) improvement recommendations.

[summerdaysgain]

I am looking for suggestions for resources to improve english comprehensions. Are some of the work books better than others? We worked through some but have been told we need to work on this over the summer. It will be 11 + as soon as we get back to school. Thank you.

You mean you have the exam itself as soon as you get back to school?

readtheory.org/

www.readworks.org/

www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/28/can-reading-comprehension-be-taught/?utm_term=.e53a0468ab16

Just bear in mind that trying to teach reading comprehension "strategies" has very limited effect on kids' reading comprehension of texts. The most important factors behind reading comprehension are a) vocabulary and b) knowledge.

Can you do some work on building knowledge and vocabularly in lots of areas? History, geography, science, RE and so on? Having a map and history timeline on the wall, keeping a vocab book, reading lots of fiction and non-fiction reading and talking about it together.

To get familiar with the text scenarios in the 11+, perhaps past papers would be useful for getting used to the format.

I think it is Bond who do a "how to do comprehension" book which we found useful. It does help the, understand what they are meant to do and gives them strategies for finding the answers. Either this book or the one on verbal reasoning also had tips for improving vocabulary through word games.

However, as has been said, the best practice is reading lots and reading a variety of things (so, factual, fiction, news, poetry...) then you asking your child about the piece they've read or talking about a news article. My 3 were always shocking at comprehension and I do think it's because none of them were avid readers.

Do try to make it fun though!

Actually, purpose of one section of Readworks, Aticle-a-Day is what Mary says, gain knowledge and increase vocabulary from various topics/subjects, without needing to find resources yourself.

Thanks for these replies. His vocabulary is actually fantastic for his age so I do not think this is the issue. It is more whether he can remember to answer the question being asked and not what he wants to answer (i.e. precision) and not to be lazy with answers so that if, for example, the answer has 3 marks write a 3 part answer and not 2 parts if that makes sense. I thought we had addressed these 2 issues but recent tests suggest not and I just wanted effective and ideally recommended sources to use.