Why it matters
- Reading comprehension is the goal of reading instruction—it’s where decoding meets meaning and it is essential to ensuring not just proficient reading but acquisition of information across the content areas as content is frequently contained in text.
- From kindergarten on, students must learn to understand what they read, not just say the words.
- Weak early comprehension skills lead to long-term academic struggles, especially in content areas like science and social studies.
Key practices for effective instruction
- Explicit strategy instruction: Teach the steps involved in using strategies like summarizing, inferencing, asking and answering questions. Model these steps and gradually release responsibility of strategy use to students over time and with continual support and feedback
- Multicomponent instruction: Combine comprehension with phonics, vocabulary, and fluency for stronger results.
- Use visuals: Graphic organizers and story maps help students visualize ideas and structure as well as the relationship between ideas.
- Build oral language: Use peer discussion and questioning routines to improve language proficiency and deepen thinking through collaborating with peers to build understandings of texts.
- Incorporate varied texts: Balance narrative and informational texts to build flexible comprehension skills.
- Select personally relevant materials: Use texts that reflect students’ language and backgrounds to boost motivation.
What to watch for
- Students who decode well but can’t explain or retell what they’ve read. These students should receive explicit instruction on how to monitor comprehension, summarize text, and ask/answer comprehension questions.
- Passive reading tasks (e.g., silent reading without instruction or discussion), as these activities are not likely to improve comprehension in the absence of explicit instruction.
- Lack of vocabulary knowledge, especially with nonfiction or content-area texts. Without needed vocabulary, students will have difficulty accessing and acquiring information contained in text. Providing explicit vocabulary instruction on terms students need to understand in the text before reading can improve student access.
Tips by student group
- Multilingual learners
- Use visuals, oral language routines, and personally relevant texts
- Leverage home language and background knowledge when possible to connect to comprehension
- Student with disabilities
- Use explicit instruction, repeated modeling and guided practice, and small-group scaffolds
- Incorporate graphic organizers like story maps and structured retell routines
- At-risk students
- Use peer-assisted strategies with teacher modeling
- Prioritize comprehension + decoding in short, frequent practice sessions
- Multicomponent interventions offered in Tier I, II, and III settings and including fluency, vocabulary, and phonics can be very effective
Classroom takeaway
✅ Teach comprehension explicitly—don’t assume students “just get it.”
✅ Support comprehension across all parts of reading (phonics, vocabulary, fluency).
✅ Differentiate intensity and supports for multilingual, at-risk, and disabled learners.
The information provided in this summary is based on findings from Foundational Reading Comprehension Interventions for Students in Grades K-3: A Systematic Review of Recent Research.