11+ comprehension

[billyyu]

Hi all,

Can someone recommend a good reading / comprehension app for a 9 years old who is preparing for her 11+?

1. My daughter is not an avid reader especially reading paper books though the school teacher says that her reading level is above the average.

1. I recently noticed that she might be into digital reading, so I have tried Epic!, but Epic! does not have questions in it.

1. I have also tried Kindle but it does not have the rewarding system as in Epic!, such as stickers, which can appeal to a 9 years old's attention.

What we are looking for is an app / website which might 1) produce a piece of passages which could be an article, a poem or a story and 2) it comes with a few questions (multiple choices) to test the understanding of the reading.

Hope this makes sense. Many thanks.

F

PS I know that secondary school uses Sparx reader to encourage students to read and at the end of reading there are questions to test their understanding, but it seems that it is not available for primary school.

Try readtheoryapp.com/. It used to be a little buggy but has a few short passages with mcq style questions. Not sure if it has written compression though.

My son uses Reading Plus which we access through a school-issued login. It's suitable from year 2 right through high school. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing you're looking for with questions to ensure you have taken the information in not just scanned through it.

Are you sure you want an online comprehension practice tool? I only ask because reading online is often linked to low engagement and poor attention. I.e. the way your child tackles online tests may be very different to the way they approach written tests.

In the kindest possible way, rather than focusing on 11 plus why don't you try to foster her love of books?

I have had four children successfully pass the 11+...some more avid readers than others. I would just get lots of different types of books and texts for your DC to read, and then talk to them about what they are reading. We never used any reading apps at all.....

Have a look on the Twinkl website.

Does she at least get to choose her own books at the library? Is she not keen on reading because everything is chosen for her?

You could try something like e.g. going somewhere of interest to her, which has a guidebook, taking it in turns to find out a particular fact about the place in the guidebook? Then go and look at the relevant area.

At that age, both DS1 and DS2 were definitely what one would term 'avid' readers, DD definitely not. She went on to do A levels in Politics, Eng. Lit. and French (lots of reading comprehension in all of those) and graduated with a First in IR with French last summer. True, she failed the local 11+ (but not due to the English paper), but she subsequently passed for in-year admissions and was particularly commended on the quality of the essay she had written. So perhaps don't panic?

Love of reading is a wonderful ideal and an enriching dimension in one's life. But sadly some kids just don't take to reading or it takes too long for any 11 plus benefit.

Hi @billyyu !

Which languages do you speak in your home? ( I just spoke in two very different languages to my mother and she then spoke in a third to her friend on the phone.)

Twinkl has some comprehension worksheets. You can also buy 11+ prep books full of comprehension exercises. If you only want online then Atom will have them.

Hello! May I ask a reading plus question - how many stories does your son read for each level? How many are they set a week? How many words /approximately in the stories and which level did he start at and is now on - how long has it taken to move up?

I've asked my son and he said they were all started at level 0 and worked their way up. He thinks it was a couple of books each level. His school didn't allocate set reading each week but they did make it a competition which spurred my son on so much that he completed the whole thing. The school were actually contacted to check if it was a test account being used by everyone rather than just 1 student 😁