Boosting Reading Comprehension With Raz-Plus

Reading Comprehension is one of the pillars of the Science of Reading. In fact, it is the culmination of mastering key foundational skills, acquiring vocabulary and background knowledge, and reading with fluency. Those who read with comprehension have the ability to apply reading strategies that support understanding before, during, and after engaging with texts. Reading Comprehension is so complex, though, that even researchers struggle to know how all of the precursor skills fit together for success. However, research indicates that key reading strategies must be explicitly taught and then practiced by readers until they all are owned by the reader as a sort of toolbox that can be used as needed. To aid with this process, Raz-Plus offers its Comprehension Skills Packs. If you are currently working on boosting reading comprehension, we’d like to show you how our Comprehension Skills Packs can help!

Instruction to Strengthen Reading Comprehension

As previously mentioned, strong reading comprehension is the result of effective instructional practices, and there’s nothing more effective than proven research-based strategies. The Comprehension Skills Packs available within Raz-Plus help you turn theory into practice by equipping you with everything you need to deliver detailed, explicit instruction. Perfectly aligned with national and state standards, the Comprehension Skills Packs in Raz-Plus provide you with a Teacher Lesson Plan within each pack along with a corresponding passage answer keys to save you time and hassle when delivering research-based instruction. As you utilize these evidence-based lesson plans, you’ll gain the confidence that the lessons you provide will lead to reading comprehension success.

Enhancing Comprehension For Struggling Readers

The Comprehension Skills Packs available within Raz-Plus provide ample support for struggling readers by way of exposure to new skills and reinforcement of learned skills through practice. To help these readers begin to learn the ins and outs of reading comprehension, this solution targets key skills such as:

• Discovering the author’s purpose
• Recognizing cause and effect within a story
• Classifying key information
• Comparing and contrasting items
• Distinguishing fact from opinion
• Identifying the main idea and supporting details
• Helping students make inferences and draw conclusions
• Revealing the problem and solution of a story
• Enabling students to recall a sequence of events

As you can see, students will gain exposure to a variety of topics while building numerous comprehension skills that are sure to boost literacy success!

How to Use Our Comprehension Skills Packs

Now that you know what type of tools our Comprehension Skills Packs offer, we’d like to show you how you can use them to become even more effective in the classroom. First, select the grade level you plan to work with and you will notice that each grade offers a wide variety of Comprehension Skills Packs to choose from. Each pack includes:

• A Model Passage
• A Practice Passage
• Independent Practice Passages
• Digital and Assignable Activities
• A Teacher Lesson Plan that includes Passage Answer Keys

Here are our suggestions to get started. First, begin the lesson by modeling the comprehension skill that particular pack targets to give your students a feel for what they are learning. This can take place in a whole-class or small-group setting.

Next, we suggest having students work to complete the Practice Passage activity, which can certainly be done in pairs if need be, to help them gain an understanding of the fiction/non-fiction subject matter using a more collaborative approach.

Then, students can move on to complete extension activities, such as Leveled Books or Graphic Organizers that focus on the same skill, helping students truly reinforce what they have learned through consistent practice. In the meantime, educators can utilize the teaching guide for tips to teach the targeted comprehension skill, reinforce knowledge, and fill learning gaps in the areas of both reading and writing using the Write and Share Activities feature.

Throughout this process, you will notice that all activities are assignable, printable, and projectable, granting you maximum flexibility to help you cater to the evolving learning environment and varying learning styles in your classroom.

A Tool That Brings It All Together

As you know, literacy instruction is multi-faceted, and enhancing reading comprehension is no exception. If you are currently trying to strengthen reading comprehension in your classroom, we suggest you check out the Comprehension Skills Packs available within Raz-Plus!