Skip to content

Comprehension

Plan
What Comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read.
Why Comprehension is the end goal of all reading.  Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read -- what is important, what is fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny, etc. Thus, comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning. It provides students with the skills and strategies needed to understand and gain knowledge from what is read.
How Best practices in reading comprehension instruction include teaching students how to use comprehension strategies, teaching students to use a text’s organizational structure to better understand and learn content, guiding students through focused high quality discussion on the meaning of a text, establishing an engaging context for teaching comprehension, and choosing texts for comprehension instruction purposefully.
Click here for more detailed information

Instruct
Classroom Strategies Comprehension Planning Guide
Blueprint for Comprehension Instruction
Comprehension Instructional Strategies and WHEN to use them
Comprehension Skills See grade level standards
Comprehension Strategies
Video
Comprehension continuum
Strategy definition list
How to teach comprehension strategies
Teaching strategies by using gradual release
Inferences Worksheets
Making Predictions Worksheets
Summarizing Worksheets
Text Structure
Video
Elements of narrative text
Structures of informational text
Guiding Students Through Text Feature Walk
Text Structure Worksheets
High Quality Discussions
Video
Categories of comprehension
Importance of think-aloud modeling
Sample discussion questions
Questioning Bookmarks

Informational question stems
Literature question stems
Techniques for peer-led discussions

Literature Circle Role Cards
Selecting Text
Video
Recommended Book List for Elementary updated 2023
Lexile Grade Level Chart
Text Level Conversions
Selecting text that supports Instructional purpose
Engagement and Motivation
Video
Recommendations for Student Engagement and Motivation
Writing to Learn Writing to Learn Activities
Listening Comprehension Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning
Assess
Acadience Progress Monitoring 3rd Grade MAZE Student Worksheets
4th Grade MAZE Student Worksheets
5th Grade MAZE Student Worksheets
6th Grade MAZE Student Worksheets
Journeys Journeys weekly test (can be found on MasteryConnect in the ELA curriculum map)
Reading Toolkit Assessments
Adapt
Interventions
Journeys Intervention Took Kit Materials
Grades 1-3
Journeys Intervention Took Kit Materials
Grades 4-6
Comprehension Stage 1
Comprehension Stage 2
Comprehension Stage 3
Comprehension Lessons (teacher)
Comprehension Stories & Organizers (student)

More Comprehension Organizers (student)
Intervention Assessments

Any resource underneath "instruct" above can be used for intervention.

Extensions Questioning Bookmarks
Jacob's Ladder Comprehension program is available for teachers to access at each school.
Teachers can use above grade-level text to challenge students' reading comprehension.