How does one develop reading comprehension?

Answer 1

A fun way I found to improve reading comprehension is to begin working on visualization. If my students have a hard time mentally seeing the content of a passage, I ask them to draw on paper what is going on in the passage. Visualization can be improved by someone reading aloud to the student who has been instructed to close their eyes, then draw what they heard. This is a fun activity for one on one teaching, as well as teaching in the classroom. As the student improves his/her visualization as they read, their comprehension significantly improves.

Answer 2

One tool that I use when I teach reading comprehension is to ask the student to read a passage of their choosing about a subject or topic they're interested in. It can be about anything: a blog post about traveling to Spain, a poem about dogs, a scientific paper that discusses the chemical element Boron.

Immediately after reading their chosen passage, I have them write down 5 questions that the passage answers. The questions don't have to be complex or layered, but they do have to be answered in the passage.

This little trick helps students think while reading.