How do you improve reading comprehenion

[Judy]

Frances, this is something I've been grappling with re one of my Y7 pupils in particular and I've come to the conclusion that, stated very briefly, good comprehension is the result fluent decoding and good general knowledge and a wide vocabulary, which are two elements which can work together. You already have the fluent decoding in place so I can only suggest that you work on your son's vocabulary.

One of the things I have not found effective is asking children to look up words in a dictionary, even if I then ask them to write a sentence to include the new word. In any case, I think your son is perhaps to young to be using a dictionary? So all I can suggest is that you explain the words he comes across that he doesn't understand, and then make sure you reinforce this new knmowledge by finding opportunities to use the word frequently in your conversations with him.

As I said, this is an area that I've only just begun to look into so I expect others will have more suggestions.

[kenm]

At what level is dictionary use taught?