| Tips > Reading Tips |
|
Improve My Child’s Reading Comprehension Skills (Part 4 – Finding Important Information) TutorGiant.com When we refer to reading comprehension, we are referring to the way that a reader understands beyond the literal meaning of a story or text. A reader, who understands the message in a fairy tale, develops a new opinion from a report, gains a deeper understanding of a written opinion, or understands a character’s motivation, changes his or her thinking. We can both gain knowledge and gain insight by reading. Knowledge comes from consistent reading and can be more easily acquired. Insight, on the other hand, is something that comes from the ‘skill’ of reading. By teaching students the reading process, we are teaching them how to learn. In order for a student to improve reading comprehension skills, he/she must learn how to ‘find important information’. Good readers locate essential ideas and important information by distinguishing them from less important ideas and information. When students are reading non-fiction text such as: science, news, history, current events, and any other similar text, they must determine key ideas. When reading fiction text, readers depend on finding underlying themes and character motivation by inferring and creating their own understanding. Not so with non-fiction. Non-fiction requires siphoning skills. What’s important in non-fiction text has to do with the details and a true understanding of the text. The skill of finding important information is also dependent on the skill of ‘making connections’. In order to find important information, a reader should have ‘some’ understanding of the text even before reading it. You can help your child learn to determine important information when reading by applying some of the following techniques. · Have your child discuss what he/she already knows about the topic that they will be reading about. This will bring background knowledge to the forefront, thus preparing your child to ‘weed’ out insignificant information. · Help your child determine the difference between ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’. Your child will learn to distinguish between interesting information and relevant information. · Your child should have a good idea of the content of the text by reading the ‘headings’ and ‘subheadings’. By doing so, your child will know, when reading, what information is relevant to the overall theme. Determining important information requires predicting, making connections, and a bit of inferring strategies. Students should practice this reading strategy when reading any non-fiction text so that they fully comprehend the message of the text. See some of the lessons in our video library. |
  |
