SAT/ACT Prep: Start Kids early on Reading Comprehension: Part 1

Once a while, I’ll see or get a request for tutoring a middle schooler, where a well wishing parent wants to get their kid started early on standardized test prep. My response is always the same, focus first and foremost on reading comprehension. Targeted math practice may also be recommended, but only if the student is struggling with math at school or needs some confidence-building exercises. It is bad enough that most of high school ends up being consumed with stress about SAT or ACT on top of an already strenuous academic load. Pulling this in to middle school is not something I stand for. But reading and comprehension are different, and this is what I’ll focus on in this post.

Let us first define what reading comprehension really means. The skill here is being able to read and synthesize a piece of text, typically in the hundreds of lines, and answer detailed questions about it. The answers need to be precise and literal, with no interpretation or inference outside the written text. On the SAT, the full name of this section is Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, with the emphasis here on the word Evidence. The SAT goes a step further, as some of the questions are pairs, where they’ll ask a question then follow-up with another question that asks which specific lines provide the basis for the answer in the previous question. The questions are not any easier for it though.

Here is a little tip about standardized tests. Reading comprehension underlies every other section, even many of the math questions. The importance of reading comprehension goes well beyond standardized tests though. It is fundamental to the entire learning process at both school and college level. For these reasons, it is never too early to start boosting your kid’s reading comprehension abilities.

At this point, the astute reader is likely to question why this isn’t already covered by day to day school activities. After all, language arts is taught throughout school, and comprehension is one of its core skills. Is there really a gap? I curated some articles below for further reference, but the short answer is that most kids would be well advised to supplement their reading comprehension beyond school work. Moreover, the assigned material should be above their grade level. It is OK for them to struggle a little with it and encounter unknown words. And finally, it is important that the reading material covers a very broad set of content with goal to increase overall knowledge, not just be an exercise in reading comprehension. 

Continue to part 2

References:

 “Too many children in California Can’t Read, Lawsuit Claims”, NY Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/california-literacy-lawsuit.html

“Frustration-level materials increase reading achievement”, https://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/frustration-level-materials-increase-reading-achievement/

“If you Really Want Higher Test Scores: Rethink Reading Comprehension Instruction”

http://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/if-you-really-want-higher-test-scores-rethink-reading-comprehension