Foundational Reading Comprehension Strategies for 2nd Grade
In 2nd grade, many students are transitioning from learning to read to reading to learn. 2nd graders are building the foundation for deeper level thinking skills. A variety of reading comprehension skills are taught in this grade level including:
Main Idea & Key Details
Story Structure
Finding Text Evidence
Character’s Actions, Thoughts & Feelings
Making Connections
Comparing & Contrasting
Nonfiction Text Features
Fact & Opinion and more!
One of my favorite ways to teach reading comprehension in the classroom or online is through self-checking digital reading passages. Students are able to get introduced to deeper level comprehension in a low-stress activity.
Fiction Reading Comprehension Activity
Keep students engaged when reading!
Metacognition
If your students are thinking about thinking, they are well on their way to better understanding the text. Students need to be aware of their thinking process during reading. What does this look like in the classroom? By summarizing, visualizing, predicting and questioning, students are going to be monitoring their own understanding which will greatly improve their reading comprehension skills. During a read aloud, pause while reading and ask questions aloud such as, “I wonder why…” “I bet __ will happen next.” “It is so interesting that ___ happened.” Model your own thinking process while reading and have students turn and talk to think of their own questions to ask and answer with each other.
2. Summarize
My two favorite ways to practice summarizing are: SWBST and the 5-finger retell. After reading, have your students describe who the characters are (SOMEBODY), what they WANTED or did, tell about the conflict (BUT), describe how the conflict was solved (SO), and what happened at the end of the story (THEN). SWBST - Somebody - Wanted - But - So - Then.
Another great way to help students retell a story is by using their fingers. Top Teacher has a really great visual resource to print out for your students.
Click on the image to use this resource for summarizing and retelling!
3. “W” Questions
Where
When
Why
Who
What
I love using interactive materials in the classroom to answer comprehension questions when doing a close reading activity. My favorite ways to make this fun and interactive are:
Writing the ‘W’ question words or other specific questions on a beach ball. Have students toss it to a partner, small group or even a large circle in a whole class activity.
Writing the ‘W’ question words on blocks (wooden, plastic, foam etc.). This is a great game to play with your table groups. Reuse the blocks by writing more specific questions on a sticker. (Teacher Tip: Coconut oil will get off anything stuck and sticky!)
Using the Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies for grouping. I absolutely love these strategies to group students differently and get students up and moving when answering comprehension questions for any book.
4. Visualization
This is a super simple way to help students understand the story! Ready for it? Draw! No for real. Have students get out a sheet of paper or use giant chart paper and have students draw different scenes in the story. They will be answering questions that you didn’t even answer while they draw what is happening. Comprehension doesn’t just have to be ‘sit and get’. Students can be up and moving, drawing, laughing, chatting and having fun all while better understanding the texts they read.
Story Structure
Learning the elements of a story is a great way to help students begin to understand it better. This is also a fun thing to do in partners or a group setting. I love to put this under the document camera and do this together with a current read aloud. Grab this freebie for helping students map out the story and understand the foundation of what is happening in the text.
Click here for a FREE download of this graphic organizer!
Science of Reading
We all know how important decoding, phonemic awareness and direct phonics instruction is, especially with the current research in the science of reading. But how does this research affect teaching comprehension? According to Keys to Literacy “There are many factors that contribute to a student’s ability to comprehend text. Teachers across all grades and subjects need to combine numerous instructional practices to help students build the comprehension strategies, knowledge of text structure, vocabulary, and connections to background knowledge needed to learn from text.” If a student is able to decode words accurately, next we need to make sure they have the proper background knowledge and understanding of the words to accurately comprehend what the text says. Once they know the meaning of the language used, they are able to more deeply think about what they are reading.
Printable & Digital Comprehension Activities
If you are looking for a fun way to help students improve their comprehension skills without the ‘kill & drill’ of testing and worksheets, these Google Slides will be a great asset for your classroom!
Fiction Reading Passages
Click the image to get these Google Slides! For each passage your students will have goals, vocabulary, comprehension questions and writing.