General Comprehension Questions to Support Home Learning
GENERAL COMREPHENSION SUPPORT FOR READING TEXTS
One of the most important forms of home learning is reading. We would like all children to read for at least 20 minutes (to you or to themselves if they are older). By asking them questions about what they've read (more challenging questions in brackets) they will be able to enjoy books on another level, thinking about the books purpose and links to their own life experiences. Examples of this include (but are not exhaustive to):
- What happened? (Can you summarise in four sentences? First... Next... Then... Finally...)
- Were there any words you didn't know/ you need to clarify? (Encourage children to re-read the sentence with the word in it to try to understand if from the context themselves before telling them what the word means - they can also look at pictures to help with what it means, and think of words they do know that are similar to it).
- What characters were there? What were they like? (How do you know this?)
- What powerful word/ phrases did the author use? What's the effect of this on the reader?
- What's one sentence that stood out to you? What makes it so powerful?
- What do you predict will happen next? What clues in the book make you think this will happen?
Reading with your child is so important because it enables your child to learn new vocabulary and it exposes them to rich, descriptive language. Did you know that 90% of children's vocabulary comes from reading books? Reading aloud to children stimulates and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills and prepares them for imaginative play, as well as equipping them with the skills required to write across a wide range of genres.