Reading Comprehension and the Classroom

Apr 28, 2009 • Early Learning, Middle School, Reading

After 35 years of working with kids, we know that most of the problems that young students encounter at school can be traced back to their literacy skills, and in particular, reading comprehension.

What is Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension is the ability to read a sentence and understand its meaning. It is the ability to look at written words and quickly process the meaning, instruction, direction, idea, or inference.

Reading comprehension is not familiarity with a single word or its meaning, but rather the ability to recognize words, sentences, and paragraphs and make sense of the overall meaning.

When students have difficulty making sense of instructions, it can easily lead to poor grades, and poor grades can easily translate into frustration and an unwillingness to participate in class.

This doesn’t mean that a child has major issues with understanding or an underlying comprehension problem. It simply means that by working on basic literacy skills, that child will improve skills such as word pronunciation and vocabulary development and improve his or her reading comprehension.

Improve a child’s literacy skills and improve that child’s self esteem.