Good readers consciously monitor their comprehension, and this is a skill that first graders can also practice. Model this strategy when you read aloud to your students. Read a passage, then stop and talk about what you are reading. Explain that restating the author’s words helps good readers to check their own comprehension. Encourage students to raise their hands and ask questions during read-alouds, especially when you are reading nonfiction. This helps them to learn to monitor their own comprehension of a story.
Asking questions during reading helps good readers to understand what they are reading. This is another strategy that you can model for your students. Read part of a passage aloud and have students brainstorm a list of relevant questions. Write these down and instruct students to listen for the answers as you continue to read. Stop and fill in the answers as students identify them in the reading. Discuss any unanswered questions when you finish reading. Encourage students to ask their own questions when they read independently and to note when they find the answer.
Graphic organizers are a visual way of organizing and assimilating information. They can help students to increase their comprehension of both fiction and nonfiction writing because they allow students to examine information more closely. For a fictional story, ask first graders to either draw pictures or write sentences to describe the beginning, middle and end of the story. For nonfiction, ask students to draw or write three new things that they learned from reading or listening to the piece.
Asking a student to tell you what happened in a story in her own words is an excellent comprehension check. A student who can tell you three main events in sequence understood the story more clearly than a student who has trouble telling you one main event. Students who have trouble writing or even drawing the events in a story may do better when you ask them to verbally retell the story in their own words. As students practice retelling stories, they will learn to remember more details and their comprehension will improve.