Comprehension instruction generally begins at home however, long before children come to school or even attend to print. As children and parents read together, especially stories that are read over and over, children begin building foundations for understanding. Interacting with the texts' pictures and story through pointing, questioning, answering, retelling, and discussing helps begin the framework that will be used later to comprehend texts they read on their own (Barr, Kammil, Mosenthal, Pearson, 1990).

In school children need to be given time to read actual books and stories as opposed to reading in a workbook. In 1985 it was estimated that only 7 to 15 minutes a day were spent reading in the primary classroom (Anderson et al. 1988). In a study which asked students what they wish their teachers would do to get them more interested and excited about reading, children responded that they wished they had more time to read more in class (Gambrell, 1996, p. 14).

Because first grade children spend so much time in the beginning of the year decoding, I teach comprehension strategies through books we read as a class. Sometimes the books are at levels higher than a students independent reading level. As a class, we can set the purpose of the text, use background knowledge to make inferences, identify the main idea, and question. I have the children explain their thinking out loud to help model their metacognition for other children.

In addition to using a text at a level that is higher than the child's reading level and reading it aloud to build comprehension, children do need to work on the skill independently as well. Children need a lot of reading that is on a very easy level. Children cannot effectively comprehend if they cannot automatically decode most of the words in a story. If they are spending time deciphering what the words are, they cannot simultaneously think about the text.

Drawing and writing are strategies which force children to independently think about their reading as well as synthesize it. Performing plays, puppet shows, and role playing also aid in comprehension as the child must synthesize and apply the story in a new context.