What is Comprehension?
Comprehension is the reason for reading! All of the other components of reading work together to help students have good reading comprehension. Students need to have good reading comprehension to understand what they are reading. Good readers use background knowledge, prior experience, and vocabulary to make sense of what they are reading. They realize when they are having problems with comprehension and are able to successfully use strategies to solve those problems.
Research tells us that comprehension instruction should be direct and explicit. Good instruction benefits students by helping them understand and remember what they have read. Some specific research-based strategies for improving reading comprehension are: monitoring comprehension, using graphic or semantic organizers, questions and answers, recognizing story structure, and summarizing. Students should be able to use these strategies flexibly and in combination with each other. Reading comprehension instruction should begin in the primary grades rather than waiting until students have mastered the basics of reading.
This video from The Balanced Literacy Diet shows some reading comprehension strategies that can be used with students.