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Reading Comprehension Strategies

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Reading Comprehension Strategies

Read each question carefully. Use the passage to practise making predictions, identifying clues and summarising main ideas.

Understanding Reading Strategies

1.While reading a story, what does making a prediction involve?

Using clues and what you already know to suggest what may happen
Retelling every event after finishing the story
Looking up every unfamiliar word before continuing
Deciding whether the author used correct punctuation

2.Which sources can help a reader predict what a text may be about? Select all that apply.

The heading or title
An illustration on the page
Details in the opening paragraph
What the reader already knows about the subject
The font used for the page number

3.What is the main purpose of a summary?

To present the important ideas briefly in your own words
To include every detail in the same order as the text
To explain whether you liked the writer’s style
To replace difficult words with simpler ones

Predict, Read and Summarise

4.Read the title and opening: “The Lights on Pelican Point”. For three nights, the old lighthouse beam had swept across the bay, although the lighthouse had been closed for years. What do you predict might explain the lights? Give one possible explanation.

5.Which clues from the title and opening helped you make your prediction? Name at least two.

Read the complete story

The Lights on Pelican Point For three nights, the old lighthouse beam had swept across the bay, although the lighthouse had been closed for years. On the fourth evening, Omar and her grandfather walked along the headland to investigate. They found no footprints at the lighthouse door, but Omar noticed the beam always appeared just after a large cargo ship passed the point. Her grandfather remembered that the ship carried a powerful searchlight. They watched from the cliff as the ship turned, and a bright flash crossed the lighthouse windows. The strange beam had been a reflection all along. In the morning, Omar sent the harbour office a note suggesting that a warning sign be placed near the walking track.

6.Summarise the story in two or three sentences. Include the central problem, how it was explained and what happened next.

Organise Your Thinking

7.Complete the organiser using the lighthouse story. In the first column, record a prediction you could make from the title and opening. In the second, give a brief summary after reading the whole story.

Prediction before reading the complete story

Summary after reading the complete story

8.How can making a prediction before reading the whole story help you as a reader? Use a detail from the lighthouse story in your explanation.

9.Create a title and one opening sentence for an imaginary story that gives a reader clues about what may happen. Then write one prediction a reader could make from your clues.