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Kentucky Teacher Shares Strategies for
Teaching Comprehension Questions
Part 1: Main Idea Question
Comprehension Questions Bookmark
To help remind students of these strategies for answering the comprehension questions, download and print a free Comprehension Questions Bookmark for your students.
The bookmark can help students focus on what is required to answer each type of question correctly.
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bookmark
Each Read Naturally story in the Sequenced, Spanish, American Manners & Customs, and Idioms Series (for levels 2.0 and above) includes five common types of comprehension questions: main idea, literal, vocabulary, inferential, and short answer. It is important for students to understand the different types of questions and have strategies to answer them.
Angela Walker Foster from Anderson County Schools in Lawrenceburg, KY has provided a great instructional strategy for teaching the comprehension questions, and we’re pleased to share the strategy with you. Read Ms. Walker's strategy for teaching students to answer main idea questions below.
Main Idea: It's not just a fact from the story, but what the story is mostly about.
- Provide each of your students with the same five stories.
- Explain to the students what the term "main idea" means: It's not just a fact from the story, but what the story is mostly about.
- Display the definition of "main idea" so the students can see it, and highlight the key words in the definition that students need to remember: mostly about.
- Read the first story aloud with the students.
- Examine the first possible answer for the main idea question. Ask the students the following question about the answer: "Is that what the whole story was mostly about, or is it just one fact we learned from the story?" Discuss why the answer is either what the story is mostly about or only a fact. Repeat this process for each of the remaining possible answers. The purpose of this activity is to help students understand how to identify the main idea. This should be a think-aloud exercise that involves all of the students.
- As a group, choose the one answer that is what the story is mostly about.
- Repeat steps 4 through 6 using the second story.
- Ask students to find the main idea in the third story independently.
- Review each possible answer to the main idea question for the third story as a group, and ask the question "Is that what the whole story was mostly about, or is it just a fact we learned from the story?" Discuss why the answer is either what the story is mostly about or only a fact.
- Repeat steps 8 through 9 using the fourth story.
- Use the fifth story as an assessment to determine whether the students understand how to identify the main idea. If they are still unable to identify the main idea, choose a few more stories to practice as a group. As with any new lesson, some students will need more practice and instruction than other students.
Part 2: Teaching the Literal Question
Part 3: Teaching the Vocabulary Question
Part 4: Teaching the Inferential Question
Part 5: Teaching the Short-Answer Question
