C2. Comprehension Strategies
Links to A3 Strand
To maximize effectiveness, comprehension strategies should be embedded organically throughout the day based on the texts being read in class, and aligned with Ontario curriculum expectations. For example, during a social studies lesson on ‘The Local Community’ (strand B), teachers can make their thinking visible by modeling how they activate their prior knowledge by listing people in the community that do jobs that help the town/city run successfully. During a health lesson on ‘mental health literacy’ (strand D), after reading the book Knots in My Laces, Knots in My Tummy by Julene Butler, the class can come up with a list identifying the things in the story that made the boy have knots in his tummy, and then work together as a class to come up with possible solutions to help if they ever find themselves in that sort of situation.
This integrated, cross-curricular approach ensures that comprehension strategies are not taught in isolation but are integrated into a variety of contexts, making them more relevant and meaningful to students. By continuously embedding these strategies in different subjects and text types, students develop a versatile set of skills that enhance their understanding and enjoyment of reading.
To read more about how to best teach comprehension strategies, check out the article: No More Strategies of the Week: Considerations for connecting comprehension instruction back to the book (Conradi Smith et al., 2024).
Curriculum Expectations
During Kindergarten, the focus was on:
In the 2016 Kindergarten program, the focus is on general ‘Literacy Behaviours’, as opposed to specific expectations. Here are the expectations that are outlined in the Kindergarten Program, as they related to reading comprehension:
- Listening to stories and texts
- Sharing ideas and responses to texts
- Learning that texts can communicate a message
- Express their thoughts and ideas with increasingly extensive and specialized vocabulary
- Ask and respond to questions that demonstrate and require predicting, making inferences, connecting, and critiquing
- Readers use the words, illustrations, and their prior experiences to make sense of text
New for Grade 1:
- BEFORE: activate prior knowledge, identify purpose for reading
- DURING/AFTER: identify important information in simple texts, including the main idea
- AFTER: identify strategies that helped them comprehend texts, such as:
-activating prior knowledge
-visualizing
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of all expectations in this strand. For a more detailed view, please see the official Ontario curriculum.
Further Reading
- See resources on the C. Reading Comprehension page
Suggested Resources
- See resources on the C. Reading Comprehension page
