Reading is a cumulative process.  As each school year passes, your child builds the knowledge and skills that are necessary for becoming a better reader. Reading with your child and helping him or her practice specific reading skills will dramatically improve your child’s ability to read.

    What follows are ideas for grade 5 reading comprehension activities that you can do with your child to build the skills he or she needs to become a good reader. As a parent, you can help your child want to learn in a way no one else can. That desire to learn is a key to your child's future academic success.  Try to incorporate any or all of the following grade 5 reading strategies at home.  For the following strategies, you can use your child’s favorite books, sign new ones out from the library, or purchase more for your home collection. 

How Can I Help My Grade 5 Child’s Reading Comprehension?

·        Have your child read a variety of texts such as: myths, legends, short stories, classic novels, and non-fiction text such as biographies, and newspapers.

·        Show your child how an introduction and conclusion are related.

·        Have your child ask meaningful questions while reading in order to attempt to gain a better understand and improve reading comprehension.

·        Have your child identify the writer’s motivation in both fiction and non-fiction text.

·        Have your child determine the cause and effect of the main events of the story in chronological order.

·        Show your child that stories have an underlying theme or moral.

·        Have your child summarize the book or story in his or her own words.

·        Have your child point out the topic sentence, supporting details, and conclusion in a non-fiction paragraph.

·        Show your child how to synthesize a non-fiction text by combining his or her reading strategies to develop a new outlook/summary of the text.

·         Help your child identify bias in text.