Comprehenstion - Any useful reading book list?

[Parent2019]

Hello Parents

My child finds CEM comprehension challenging. Are there any specific books i should be reading with him ?

xx

[helen0209]

Hello Parents

My child finds CEM comprehension challenging. Are there any specific books i should be reading with him ?

xx

Hello

I wouldn’t say that there were specific books, but ideally it should be varied - authors, genres, fiction, non-fiction etc. When reading, discuss certain words and the story to ensure that he understands. Ask him why he thinks the author has written sentences in a certain way - what is the author trying to get the reader to think / feel etc.

I don’t know the age of your DC, but in Y5 we read things like Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Invisible Socks, Emil and the Detectives, The White Giraffe, The Railway Children, Scribbleboy, The Borrowers, Artemis Fowl, Danny the Champion of the World, Ratburger and the Roman Mysteries.

[teacher]

They are hard but that’s the level they need! therein lies the problem. As primary teachers we just don’t generally expose children to this level of difficulty ; there’s a tendency to annotate, explain, enable discussion, find a fun and engaging activity etc etc and the rigour of eleven plus texts don’t lend themselves to this. If children know what’s expected and are treated as special learners on a big endeavour they usually rise to the challenge.

[turnip08]

My eldest son, despite being a voracious reader (including complex, above age level fiction), always struggled with comprehension (especially inference) and his vocabulary wasn't great either. I do think reading with your child is important to ask those questions 'what do you think will happen next and why?', 'why do you think he/she did that ', 'why do you think he/she is upset' etc etc.

There are also some Making Inferences Worksheets (free) online you could try. I'm sure I've read somewhere that increasing vocabulary is one of the best ways of improving comprehension.

Good luck!