YUHSD:Gila Ridge High School

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As students get older, they are required to put their reading comprehension to the test through content-area reading, which includes reading those History and Science textbooks. Students without good reading skills often struggle with this. However, with some practice and a little extra effort, your child can easily comprehend his content-area texts and be more successful in classes that require a good amount of textbook reading.

When a student receives a textbook reading assignment, he should first preview the assignment. You can help by having your child look at the pictures and associated captions in the reading assignment. Have him think about how they relate to the content and try to connect this information to prior knowledge.

Next, have your child look at the chapter headings and subheads as well as the vocabulary and/or italicized words. Again, ask him to make some connections to what he has already learned in the class. How does this information relate to what he has already learned?

Students must often answer questions relating to the reading assignment. Your child should read the comprehension questions within the reading assignment or at the end of the chapter before he starts reading so he knows what information he should get out of the text. It is also helpful to have him create numbered self-stick notes to place in the textbook when he finds the corresponding question’s answer during reading.

If your child does not understand the text as he is reading, have him use the context of the passage to make sense of the content. This means he should reread what he does not understand or read ahead to see if he can make sense of the information.

The most important thing for your child to remember is to ask for help. You do not what him to lack the information necessary to be successful on a test because he didn’t understand the content. Download our printable guide here.