As a teacher, you want your students to be successful and confident readers. And that's where reading comprehension comes in! There are tons of fun and effective ways to boost reading comprehension in your elementary students!

From simple tools like markers and sticky-notes to get their brains working, to hands-on activities that make learning a blast, there's a lot you can do to make reading a positive experience. By mixing up your approach and finding what works best for each student, you'll create a happy and supportive environment where every student can shine.

So whether you teach 3rd grade, 4th grade, or 5th grade - let’s explore __ activities to boost reading comprehension at every level:

Color-Code Your Reading

Get ready to add some color to your reading lessons! By encouraging students to take notes and highlight reading passages with different colors, they'll be able to differentiate, retain, and apply what they are learning. This is a great way to encourage students to read with purpose and attention.

Not only will it help them pay attention to critical information, but it'll also make learning more meaningful. For example, your students might use the following guide to color code their reading by underlining with a crayon or marker or even a highlighter.

Black: highlights something that was surprising

Yellow: highlights something that was important to remember

Red: highlights new or unfamiliar word

Blue: highlights a character trait

Orange: highlights something that sparked a question in your mind.

And, of course, depending on the specific reading skill or reading copmrehension strategy that you are teaching, what each color represents can vary or change.

Color coding while students are in the process of reading is a quick way that will allow students to interact with the text without having to stop for long periods of time. Often, when we ask students to stop while reading to complete an extensive reading activity, reading comprehension can break-down or be lost.

With this strategy, students can quickly highlight and move on with their reading. An extension activity would be to have students go back after reading, review what they’ve highlighted and journal about it. They can also complete a simple chart that has been divided by colors and jot down what they highlighted under each category.

Tip: If students are working in a book where they can NOT physically highlight on the page, use little sticky notes or sticky tabs to place on the pages instead.

Have students create a Reading VLOG

Welcome to the 21st century classroom! Traditionally, we would often have students write about what they were reading - but if you want to add a little multimedia to your instruction - let students create a reading vlog (also known as a video blog).

Essentially, students record short little video “episodes” about what they’ve read. They can recap a whole chapter, analyze a character, describe a setting — anything! And of course, the content of their episodes can compliment the reading skills and strategies that you are teaching.

A reading vlog can be done with simple video equipment such as a tablet or iPad in the classroom or even at home. Have students try this with a chapter book and create a series of episodes all pertaining to the same book. Or - have students who have read the same picture book record an episode covering a variety of aspects. One student might discuss the setting, another might discuss the plot, and so on.

Make it Collaborative

Collaboration is a huge part of the modern classroom - and there are many ways to use collaboration to boost reading comprehension.

Try assigning reading partners or small groups to discuss a text (or go as far as implementing literature circles), debate different perspectives, or create a visual representation of key concepts from the text. Another fun option is to conduct a class-wide jigsaw activity where each student is responsible for understanding a different section of a text, and then they come together to share their knowledge with the group. These types of activities not only improve reading comprehension, but they also enhance critical thinking and communication skills.

Focus on reading comprehension strategies

Reading comprehension comes when we teach students how to THINK about what they are reading, and reading comprehension strategies do just that. They help students dive deeper by interacting with the text.

These reading strategies include making connections, inferring, visualizing, determining importance, predicting, asking questions, determining importance, and synthesizing.

And - lucky for you, I’ve already covered in great length how to teach reading comprehension strategies in a blog series. Click on each picture below to dive in to each one:

Giving students lots of practice with all of the strategies together, as well as proving isolated instruction on each one will boost reading comprehension.

And when it comes to giving students lots of practice - let’s make it FUN and interactive.

LINKtivity Interactive Learning Guides are the perfect blend on explicit instruction matched with engaging practice that allows students to master each reading comprehension strategy.

If you’re brand new to the idea of LINKtivities, then this post might be helpful to help give you the bigger picture, but simply put: LINKtivities are digital interactive learning guides that allow students to explore a new concept through video, audio, graphics, and text, all at the pace and direction of the individual student.

In terms of a reading comprehension strategy LINKtivity, students begin by watching an animated video introducing the reading strategy in kid-friendly terms. The video captivates students right away and gives them a solid foundation of the strategy.

Check out this sample from my Inferring LINKtivity:

From there, students explore the reading strategy as they read alongside a virtual “reading buddy” that models the strategy for them. Their reading buddy will share how they are using the reading strategy as they think out loud. Here’s what it looks like:

Finally, students get the opportunity to practice the reading strategy on their own through 3 additional high-interest reading passages tailored to the reading strategy.

To bring it all together, students show their learning through a simple recording sheet (printable or digital). This allows you to assess the students’ use and understanding of the reading strategy, as well as plan further instruction, as needed.

The beauty of isolated instruction through LINKtivities is that you can assign students the specific reading strategy LINKtivity that fits their current need. After students are able to practice the reading strategy through explicit instruction using LINKtivities, they can begin to apply the strategy to their independent reading books and beyond!

Find ALL of my Reading Comprehension Strategy LINKtivities HERE: