Improving reading comprehension requires more than assigning another passage or asking students extra questions about the reading. Reading comprehension is both a process and a product, where students are making meaning as they are reading at the word, sentence, and paragraph level, and then make meaning at the end of the text that reinforces or changes the interpretations they made along the way. Reading comprehension develops when students can accurately decode text, understand language, deconstruct and analyze individual sentences, and connect what they read to what they already know. Instruction that intentionally targets each element, and uses assessment to guide next steps, can help improve reading comprehension over time.
Drawing on research and insights from HMH experts and former teachers, including NWEA VP of content advocacy in literacy Miah Daughtery, EdD, HMH senior product manager Patricia Starek, MSEd, and NWEA account executive Tracie Gibson, MEd, this post explores ways to improve reading comprehension that teachers can apply right away, including step-by-step routines, instructional strategies, classroom activities, and assessment guidance.
What is comprehension in reading?
Reading comprehension is the ability for a reader to understand the meaning of a written text by processing and integrating it with their existing knowledge. It is an active process, happening continuously at the word, sentence, paragraph, and whole text levels, where readers confirm or revise their understanding while they read.
Reading comprehension is the product of accurate decoding and robust language development. Students must be able to read words and sentences on the page and understand the vocabulary, syntax, and ideas they convey.
Background knowledge plays a powerful role in this process. When students are familiar with a topic, they remember details better and make more accurate inferences. For example, the well-known Recht and Leslie baseball study demonstrated that students with strong baseball knowledge outperformed stronger readers who lacked topic knowledge, highlighting the importance of building background knowledge alongside reading skills.
Think of reading as a two-lock box, requiring two keys to open. The first key is decoding skills. The second key is oral language, vocabulary, and domain—specific or background knowledge sufficient to understand what is being decoded.
Why do some students encounter challenges with reading comprehension?
Students encounter challenges with reading comprehension for many different but often overlapping reasons:
- Decoding or fluency limitations. When word reading requires a lot of effort, little mental energy remains for making meaning.
- Language comprehension challenges. Many students decode accurately but need additional help with vocabulary nuance, unfamiliar sentence structures, or with how ideas connect within and across sentences.
- Limited background knowledge. Unfamiliar topics increase the readers’ cognitive load, leading to potentially oversimplifying ideas and a higher likelihood of misinterpretation.
- Sentence complexity and text structure. Dense sentences and unfamiliar text structures require explicit instruction in how texts are organized and how ideas connect.
- Executive function and attention. Passive reading habits and limited self‑monitoring make it harder to notice confusion and repair meaning during reading.
How to increase reading comprehension skills
Improving reading comprehension skills often requires a clear, repeatable instructional routine rather than isolated activities. This helps develop an understanding of students’ current strengths and needs, then intentionally builds language, knowledge, and strategic reading behaviors over time.
Teachers can try this step-by-step routine run within one lesson or across a short sequence:
- Assess current understanding. Start with a quick check to identify whether needs are rooted in decoding or language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, background knowledge).
- Set a clear purpose for reading. Name the goal (e.g., “find the central idea” or “compare two arguments”) so students know what they’re working toward.
- Preview vocabulary and build background knowledge. Introduce two or three key terms and a brief anchor (e.g., a short visual or sentence starter) that frames unfamiliar concepts.
- Model active comprehension. Think aloud on a short excerpt to demonstrate a specific comprehension strategy (e.g., questioning the text, monitoring for confusion, or connecting ideas).
- Guide and repeat strategy practice, as needed. Have students practice the same comprehension strategy you just modeled in the next paragraph or short chunk of text. Prompt students to cite specific lines that support their thinking. As students gain confidence, move from modeling the strategy to reminding them to use strategies they already know (e.g., asking, “If you’re stuck here, what strategy could help?”). Encourage students to use a strategy log to build the habit of selecting strategies independently.
- Release to independent application. Students independently apply the same comprehension strategy to a new section of text, using text‑dependent questions to gather and cite evidence.
- Monitor and plan next steps. Close with a quick write or exit slip, note patterns, and adjust upcoming vocabulary, background knowledge, or strategy instruction accordingly.
Teach strategies quickly and then apply them to the business of reading.
Instructional strategies to improve reading comprehension
Effective strategies to increase reading comprehension should combine explicit instruction, modeling, and scaffolding so students learn the processes they can carry into increasingly complex texts.
Meet the text and instructional goal.
The strategy you choose should support the text and the instructional goal. Often that means teachers first need to know the text and task well, then decide what strategy will best unlock understanding. Select a small set of high-leverage strategies and tie each one to a specific goal in the text. Name the goal (e.g., “compare two arguments”), model the move on a short excerpt, guide students on the next paragraph, then have them apply it independently and reflect on how the strategy supported comprehension. Pick the strategy to meet the text and instructional goal.
Model, then release.
Use brief think-alouds to make the reasoning visible: preview the text, set a purpose, and show how to track confusion and confirm or revise understanding. Move quickly into guided practice and then independent application using the gradual release of responsibility (I do, we do, you do). Teach reading comprehension strategies clearly and then quickly apply them to the business of reading.
Scaffold in ways that fade.
Offer temporary supports that help students succeed without carrying the cognitive load for them. For example, teachers might chunk a long article, surface two or three key terms, or provide a brief organizer that mirrors the text structure. As students gain independence, intentionally fade these supports—use a lighter organizer, remove sentence frames or prompts, and gradually increase text length or complexity—so the process becomes theirs. Teachers can also promote independence by asking metacognitive questions such as: How would you chunk this text for better understanding? or Based on the topic, what key terms do you expect the text to address?
Ask text dependent questions.
Frame questions that send students back to the text for evidence and sequence them to deepen thinking: first locating key information, then integrating ideas, and finally critiquing the author’s claims and craft. This progression aligns to widely used assessment lenses and keeps instruction anchored in evidence.
Integrate writing and discussion.
Reading is active and can be communal. Short written responses and structured partner or small-group talk help students explain, synthesize, and justify their thinking in real time. Require students to name the strategy they used and cite the lines that support their conclusion.
Attend to language in service of meaning.
The relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension is central to meaning making, so instruction that previews key terms, revisits flexible word meanings during reading, and unpacks complex sentences can support understanding across texts.
Teach vocabulary and syntax in context.
Preview a few domain and academic words, revisit flexible meanings during reading, and model how to unpack sentences by using the language of the discipline (e.g., subject, predicate, modifier), identifying the subject and predicate, tracking modifiers, and paraphrasing.
Reading is active and communal. Students should be talking, writing, and producing evidence from texts.
Activities to improve reading comprehension
Classroom activities to enhance reading comprehension skills give students meaningful practice. Try these activities to make thinking visible, keep students in the text, and match the demands of the reading.
- Vocabulary previews and prediction talk: Begin with two or three high‑leverage words and a brief prompt that invites students to anticipate how those terms might appear in the text. Keep it quick, then revisit the words during and after reading to confirm or refine meanings.
- Interactive read‑alouds and partner talk: Read a short excerpt aloud, pause at planned points, and ask text‑dependent questions that require evidence. Give students thirty seconds to “turn and talk” using sentence starters like “I think . . . because the text says . . . ,” then chart a few responses before continuing.
- Annotation routines: Ask students to mark their thinking while they read. Use simple, consistent symbols: a question mark for confusion, an exclamation point for something surprising, and arrows when a detail connects to prior knowledge. Keep annotations brief and tied to the purpose for reading.
- Storyboards and graphic organizers for reading comprehension: After reading, have students map the text’s structure—e.g., sequence, problem-solution, or compare-contrast—so relationships among ideas are clear. Match the organizer to the structure and the goal.
- Project‑based tasks and choice‑based responses: Offer short, authentic products that let students show understanding through oral, visual, or written formats (e.g., a narrated slide, a one‑page brief, or a two‑minute podcast). Voice and choice keep students engaged while deepening comprehension.
Assessing reading comprehension skills
Assessment should reveal how students construct meaning, not just what they recall. Effective reading comprehension assessment strategies prioritize authentic reading behaviors alongside regular formative checks, allowing instructional plans to evolve as students’ thinking becomes visible.
Quick writes, exit slips, and brief conferences can capture how students infer, synthesize, and explain ideas, while text dependent questions and short responses invite them to return to the text, cite specific lines, and explain how those lines shaped or changed their understanding. Together, these practices can provide concrete evidence of the reasoning behind a student’s comprehension and can inform subsequent minilessons or small-group work.
Tasks are often sequenced across three widely used cognitive lenses, so evidence accumulates in a balanced way:
- Locating and recalling essential details
- Integrating and interpreting to summarize, infer, and connect ideas
- Critiquing and evaluating to analyze craft and judge claims
This progression keeps assessment anchored in real reading rather than looking at isolated skills and helps clarify next steps for instruction. The goal of assessment should be to assess understanding with authentic tasks that demand evidence, synthesis, and evaluation.
Formative assessment is everything—it informs daily instructional decisions.
The role of assessment and progress monitoring in improving reading comprehension
Assessment has the greatest impact when it is embedded within instruction and used continuously to monitor progress. Curriculum embedded assessments, such as daily look-fors, section diagnostics, and culminating performance tasks, allow teachers to diagnose needs and adjust instruction in real time.
Placing rich texts at the center of instruction creates a virtuous cycle. Students read widely to build knowledge and vocabulary, teachers analyze evidence of understanding to guide next steps, and culminating tasks ask students to demonstrate comprehension authentically.
Increasing reading comprehension
To increase reading comprehension, educators can take a comprehensive approach: identify decoding and language needs accurately, teach strategies explicitly within a gradual release structure, provide engaging opportunities for practice with rich texts, and embed assessment throughout instruction. These interconnected practices reflect the principles of the science of reading research and can help students understand complex texts, retain knowledge, and apply learning across content areas.
***
Explore HMH’s evidence-based science of reading-aligned curriculum for Grades K–12 or learn more about our science of reading professional development opportunities.
Get actionable strategies to guide instruction and accelerate your students’ reading progress.
