A good day

I was working with my son today on reading comprehension. I was using a test prep book (because of our upcoming high stakes testing) but as a break I went to EPS book called Reasoning and Reading. In it, there are lots of critical thinking activities. One was on whole and parts. Afterwards, we went back to the test prep book to a section on main points. He got the first one wrong—very typical and something I have had a hard time teaching him. Except this time, I thought back to the whole and parts exercise and asked him again whether a squirrel was a part or a whole. And how about a tail. Then I read the statement he picked and asked him the same thing. And then the right answer. And by george, he got it. I told him the main idea was the whole—the details or examples were the parts.

I find many aspects of reading comprehension difficult to teach my son because they are so natural to me. This really seemed to help him so I thought maybe it might help someone else.

Beth

Anyway, some things with reading comprehension are so natural and obvious to me that I find