Question students as you read to them or read together. Ask questions that cause them to reflect on the text. Listening to their answers helps you to check for comprehension. If they don't completely understand the text, then you can explain ideas that may be confusing them.
Ask children to predict what happens next. Once you've read part of a story, have the children talk about what they think is most likely to happen. This causes them to reflect on the meaning of the passages that were read and form connections to future outcomes.
Invite students to draw, paint or color images that illustrate the text.
Ask students to retell a passage that was read. They can retell the story to you, to a parent or to another student. If the students have basic letter-writing and spelling skills, you can also have them retell parts of the story through writing.
Discuss with students how a story relates to their personal experience. Drawing personal connections to the text helps students understand concepts within the text more clearly.