Helping boys with comprehension is paramount.  But with so many strategies and theories, no wonder parents (& sometimes teachers!) are overwhelmed.  Do any of these sound familiar?

“James often plows right through reading, decoding words but not comprehending.”

“I can tell that Samuel doesn’t get the meaning as he works through a page of text.”

“Alex just gives up.”

As a teacher and tutor with 20+ years’ experience, I think that comprehension is probably one of the hardest areas for children to grasp and one that often needs parent involvement to support what is taught at school.  You might like to try some of these strategies to enhance a boy’s understanding of texts:

1)  Before Reading

Discover what your son/student already knows by tapping into his prior knowledge.  Often boys know more than we give credit them for – draw out those ideas that are swirling around in his head.  A boy will comprehend better if he can make a connection between the text, his life and the world at large.

2) During Reading

Start off by asking, “Does this make sense?” If the answer is no, use the most basic fix-up techniques of rereading, reading ahead, skipping or filling in a word. 

One could argue, however, that if a child didn’t ‘get it’ the first time, then re-reading the text won’t help. 

So try this tip: When your son reads, encourage him to have an inner conversation with the text. Does he respond with excitement, humour, wonder, even anger?  If your son questions the text, disagrees with the author or nods his head in agreement then he’s better able to connect ideas, make inferences and better understand what he’s reading. 

Encourage your son to form a mental image from the clues in the text/book.

We want our boys to recognise how important their thinking is when they read – even from an early age.

To add fun, use sticky notes to jot down ideas, questions, points, pictures – I find that boys of all ages enjoy doing this.

The famed children’s author Madeleine L’Engle says, “Readers usually grossly underestimate their own importance. If a reader cannot create a book along with the writer, the book will never come to life. . . . The author and the reader ‘know’ each other. They meet in the bridge of words.”

3)  Making Predictions

Everyone predicts—including children—all the time. Our lives would be impossible, we would be reluctant even to leave our house in the morning, if we had no expectation about what the day might bring.  Prediction though is not reckless guessing.

Why do we need to predict?  In fluent reading aloud, the eye is always ahead of the voice, checking for possible hurdles to a particular understanding. Readers concerned with the word directly in front of their noses will have trouble predicting, and they will have trouble comprehending.

4)  After Reading

Comprehension must be guided with deeper questions. Not the usual how, why, where, who, when but asking How is X like Y?  Why is X important?  What conclusions can you draw about Y?

There is strong evidence to show that helping boys to ask deep questions in order to build explanations is beneficial to student learning – in all subject areas, not just reading.  Remember that even subjects like PE will have components where boys have to read and comprehend theory.

5)  Finding the right books

Generally, your son should recognize 80 – 90% of the words in the books.  Stopping too often will interrupt the flow and will just cause confusion as he tries to focus on the overall meaning.

Also, the text should fire them up to start reading so choose stories that interest them!