What is the best way to work on reading comprehension. I think at this point my daughter is so busy paying attention to the words she’s reading that she’s missing the story.
I stop her and we talk about what’s going on in the story. If I ask her I get answers that are just way out there. So I have to stop her and redirect as to what she is reading. Is it something that she will just get on her own the more she reads?
If she is game you might try either reading the story to her aloud the first time so she can understand the story line and then let her read it or have her try re-reading the same story several times. As her fluency improves so will her comprehension.
Hmm–we don’t have this problem, but that is because H. (who is only a little older than yours) doesn’t read much to himself, though he is doing so more again now. Mostly it’s me reading to him (at mealtimes). I’m confident that this increases his fluency because he follows along with my finger which runs along the text. I see lots of evidence that he understands what’s going on.
When he reads for himself, he reads books that are easy for him. He can read very advanced stuff fluently, but what he reads for himself are like “Level 2” books about trucks, Berenstain Bears books–things at that level. Maybe you should encourage your daughter to read some really really easy stuff, so she both enjoys and understands what she reads. That can be good practice too.
I’m not saying the way we’re doing it is necessarily better, by the way, just different. After all, because I read to him so generously, I’m pretty convinced by now that he falls back on me as a crutch. He simply doesn’t want to read to himself because he knows Papa is going to be reading to him. I have half a mind to stop reading to him for a few days, just to see what happens…
BTW to the BrillKids.com folks: thanks for FINALLY improving these text boxes. Huge improvement!
When I am reading out loud to my son and come across a word I don’t think he understands I stop and tell him the definition of the word and then I use it in several sentences. When I do this I have observed he starts using it in his everyday speech.
We had issues with reading comp with my son. He could read whatever I put in front of him, but couldn’t tell me anything about what he read when I asked questions about it. Last month we got a new reading program called funnix. It is basically a computer version of Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. My son loves it! I started him at the beginning of Level 2 because of the reading comp issues. Every lesson he reads a story and then answers questions about what he read. He has never gotten a question wrong. Now when I have him read other things he will tell me about what he read. Now I dont have to fight with him about doing a reading comp worksheet I might have downloaded from education.com. Before funnix I was ready to give up on reading comp for awhile, and try again in a few months, now he is reading chapter books on his own and telling me about them without me asking.
Thanks for the advice 
I do have Funnix. I’ll have to give it a try again with her. At first my daughter wasn’t very interested. But we were in the beginning of the program. Maybe I’ll have to reassess and see where she is at now.
This is great info! I have Funnix, but we started at the beginning of Level One. I think he is beyond that stage, and reading at a grade one level. What Lesson your your recommend we start at?
My dd is still reading mainly books with pictures, so we talk about what is happening and what we see in the picture after she reads each page. I ask her questions as well. So far she seems to understand what is going on even when she is reading it herself.