Comprehension is the most important aspect of reading once basic decoding skills have been grasped. Oxford Reading Buddy helps your child to learn vital comprehension skills and strategies.
The Reading Buddy in the Coaching eBooks encourages your child to actively use comprehension strategies during reading to help them understand a text. There are seven key strategies and they are:
| Strategy | Description |
|---|---|
| Check it makes sense | Check words, phrases and ideas make sense. If they don’t make sense, read around the sentence and think about the rest of the text to work them out. |
| Look for clues | Think like a detective and look beyond what the words say to the clues underneath. |
| Decide main points | As you read, watch out for the main events or the most important information. |
| Notice text features | Be aware of the type of text you’re reading. Notice features that the writer has used to help you understand the text. |
| Question and predict | Make predictions and ask yourself questions. Then read on to find out. |
| Picture in your mind | Make a picture in your mind of the text or think about feelings or sounds to make the text more real. |
| Think and remember | Use what you already know about the world or other books to understand the text more. |
Encourage your child to listen to the Buddy prompts and use these strategies in all their reading.
Skills are abilities that can be used after reading to answer questions about the text. All the quiz questions in Oxford Reading Buddy relate to one of five key comprehension skills and children are assessed against these skills. These are:
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Finding information | Finding information from the text. |
| Making connections and inferences | Reading between the lines of the text and finding clues. |
| Understanding vocabulary | Identifying the meaning of words and phrases. |
| Using structure and organization to make meaning | Making sense of a text by understanding the ‘gist’, ordering events, and identifying and summarizing main ideas. |
| Understanding and appreciating author toolkit | Understanding and evaluating how the author uses language and expressing opinions on a text. |