The key to helping your child improve their comprehension skills is reading!
Comprehending and understanding the meaning of texts relies on students being able to fully engage with the texts they are reading. To do this they must be able to predict, hypothesise, question, summarise, empathise and reflect.
These skills will develop once your child has learnt to decode the words on the page but can only be perfected if your student is reading, questioning and reflecting on a regular basis.
You can log in to the student literacy area to access resources which will help you to help your child improve their comprehension but the best way is to engage with them in their reading and to question them about what they have read.
Perhaps the easiest and most effective way is to consider the 5Ws; during or after reading ask your child Who, What, Where, When and Why?
Who is the main character?
Who is their most favourite character?
What is the text about?
Where is the text set?
Where do certain events in the text happen?
When is the text set? When do certain events happen in the text? When do you start to change your point of view on the character or your predictions for the outcome of the text?
Why – this is the most important of the 5 as it enables the reader to consider and give reasons for their choices.