During my assessments this past week, I was thrilled to see some great reading growth! Next week, we will start with new books and a renewed emphasis on comprehension. Good readers constantly check for understanding, just like a car owner monitors his/her car! Readers who are checking their comprehension, go back and fix up mistakes or search for more information to explain a confusing part of a story.

Beginning readers are just starting to develop this skill. They sometimes keep plowing ahead even though their reading didn’t make sense. As parents and teachers, we can model how to be that voice which is checking for understanding. If your child continues reading after making a mistake (substituting a word or skipping a word), gently stop him/her and ask, “Did that make sense?” Next, prompt your child to reread that portion of text. Rereading is one of the best strategies for clearing up these types of errors. By doing this, you are showing your child that it is important to stop and clear up mistakes, before continuing through a story. Beginning readers sometimes think that they can’t stop while reading because they just want to sound like a grown up reader! However, if the story doesn’t make sense, their comprehension will be unstable. With frequent modeling and practice, your child will learn this important cognitive skill, automatically asking the question, “Did that make sense?” That is when all systems are working and reading really happens!

Happy reading!