Reading comprehension

[user1495827045]

My son (4) is in reception. His reading is fantastic but his teacher has said we need to develop his reading comprehension. I will ask questions and it is always 'I don't know'. Any tips?

You could ask what he would like to happen next, rather than what he thinks will happen next. That would open it up and he couldn’t be ‘wrong’.

Or ask him to explain the story to someone he hasn’t read it to?

Is he reading picture book? As about a detail in the picture - what colour is mums jumper, how many cups are on the table etc, who is his favourite character and why. This can be done with other books too not just school ones of course!

I work in yr 1 and benchmark the children for comprehension as well as reading.

When reading point to the pictures and ask who the characters are.
Ask what he can see in the pictures.
On one level forget about the words and ask what he thinks the pictures say.
Then read the words. Is that the same or different from what he thought?
I regularly hold children back from moving up as they have no idea what they have just read.

You could try asking him about who is in the story; where are they; when; what happened etc. And getting him to tell it in his own words is a great idea by pp. let him lead- ask open questions.

Show him your own responses to the story, so he can see and understand 'reader' behaviour. So don't just read, say things like: 'I can't wait to find out if...' 'I wonder if mum will be cross when...' 'That was really silly! I wonder why he did that?' Even pretending not to 'get' something really obvious in the story. If your son understands the story, he can explain it to you, but if not you can say 'Shall we have another look and see if we can figure it out together?'

Also, so lots of reading of other texts, not just stories. Write a simple shopping list and ask him to check how many apples you need. Or a note about what to pack for a day night, so that he has to read it and find information. You could try leaving little notes or secret messages for him, telling him about the day e.g. We will see Gran today. (But only using words or sounds that he can already recognise).

Thankyou all so much for your help. Will be using all these suggestions to help him :)