Comprehension hasn't always been the easiest skill for kids to grasp. This skill requires practice, practice, and some more practice. And with all the practice, it's best to mix it up with various strategies to keep kids actively engaged in comprehending the books they're reading. One valuable strategy is writing about reading as it helps kids understand text. Keep reading to find out four ways you can help your students refine their comprehension skills.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand text by integrating what was read/heard, understand the meaning, and connect with prior knowledge. Comprehension is increased when children have the opportunity to discuss what they've read. This can be achieved by, but not limited to:
- class discussion
- small group discussion
- games and activities
- Socratic Seminar
Writing about reading is also extremely beneficial. Discussions allow students to think deeper, hear various points of view, and have questions answered. Writing gives students the opportunity to take it one step further by recording their thoughts.
Reading Response Journals
Writing about reading has a perfect home in Reading Response Journals. For our young writers, response journals give students a dedicated place to write about the books they read or you've read to them.
To answer the question: What is a reading response? It's a written examination of a book. It can be answering questions, asking questions, sharing an opinion, or just thoughts on a text.
This resource provides a form of practice for students to respond to text whole class or independently. It can also be a guide for discussion before writing.
Find Reading Response Journal for Kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders here.
Reading Comprehension for Kindergarten
Reading response journal ideas for kindergartners depends on a class or individual students. Most kindergartners will begin the school year with listening to a story and drawing a picture as a reading response. As the year progresses, many will be able to write a sentence to match their pictures.
Reading Comprehension for First Graders
Most first graders will be able to draw a picture and write a sentence to demonstrate their understanding of a story. It's beneficial to talk about the book before producing a written response, which will give them more ideas as they're writing.
Reading Comprehension for Second Graders
With a little guidance, second graders are ready to respond independently and often. They can draw pictures about what they've read, but should be writing more detailed responses with evidence to support their answers.
Tips for Success
Whether students are in kindergarten, first, or second graders, writing about reading will increase your students understanding of text. How students demonstrate their understanding will depend on the student. Some will be able to draw their responses and some will be able to cite evidence. Either way, reading comprehension and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Here are some ideas to make response journals a success:
- model how to write a response using a think aloud
- discuss the reading response journal questions before writing
- let students share their responses after writing
- make time for writing about reading several times a week
Sentence Stems to Support Writing About Reading
Whether you call them sentence stems or sentence frames, they help students answer questions about books. Sentence stems will get your students started with answering questions about a story.
Furthermore, sentence frames, or sentence stems, can be created for anything. Here are some sentence stems examples that can be used before, during, and after reading.
They're helpful in class discussions and with writing responses. Get a copy here.
How to Use Sentence Stems/Sentence Frames
- Think of a question you'd like to ask your students (e.g. Who was the main character?).
- Decide how you would like them to answer the question (e.g. The main character is ___.
- Write the sentence stem on a sentence strip, on the board, or a digital presentation.
- Display the sentence stem so all students can see it.
- Practice reading the sentence stem with the students.
- Pose the question (e.g. Who was the main character?) and have students answer it using the sentence stem (e.g. The main character is Little Red Riding Hood.).
Once your students have practiced answering the question orally, they can write a response. If they were lacking confidence, the oral practice will give them the boost they need.
As an added bonus, your students will practice speaking in complete sentences, which is beneficial for writing.
Games to Build Comprehension (Don't Forget to Write)
It's always a good time when learning can be done through games and activities. Since we're making the connection between writing and comprehension, don't forget to have students write after any of the activities.
Comprehension Tic-Tac-Toe
Have your students team up to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. After reading a story, have students answer questions about the book.
Once students are finished playing, have them use the sentence frames to write about the story. You decide how you want your students to write. They could:
- choose 3 sentence to write using the frames on the gameboard
- write a sentence for 3 in a row
- choose 1 sentence to write and draw a picture
Ask a Question, Answer a Question
After a read aloud, hand out index cards. Have your students write one question on the index card. Then let your students walk around the classroom to ask and answer question about the story.
As your students are practicing with each other, find your favorite question and use it to have students write about reading.
Character Clues
Have students choose a character from popular stories or from books you have read to the class. Then ask them to write clues about the character. Read the clues to the class and let students figure out the character.
In this photo a student has drawn the main character, time of day, and where the story takes place from a book she has read.
I took the sticky note and asked, “Is it one day, Moana was on a ship?” From here she can write it in a sentence in her reading journal.
Story (Candy) Land
This is a fun small group activity. Using a Candy Land gameboard, have students answer questions about a story as they choose a card. After answering a question, they can move to the color on the card.
Get the Story Land questions here. Use the questions that are included, or write your own.
Once the game is over, have your students complete reading response journal questions worksheet.
Write a Letter
Let students choose a character from a book they've read. Then have them write a letter as the character in the story. Your students can write about:
- an event from the story
- another character in the story
- a problem in the story
- a place they visited in the story
- how they felt in the story
Make Writing About Reading a Routine
To show its importance try to incorporate writing about reading several times a week. With practice, this will take no more than 5 minutes each day. As you incorporate more writing and comprehension, begin adding it across the curriculum in science and social studies.
Whether your students are playing games or using sentence frames, always bring it back to writing about reading. They can use ideas they shared during these activities to write. Start small by choosing something you know you can easily implement. This could be:
- using sentence stems after a read aloud
- writing a class sentence about a story
- playing Story Land with a small group
- incorporating Comprehension Tic-Tac-Toe
- completing a reading response on Mondays (or any day) after a read aloud
Remember small steps are just the beginning. Soon writing about reading will become a part of your routine.
