Reading Comprehension Helper

Develops reading comprehension skills through structured questioning, annotation strategies, and analysis frameworks. Works with any text from children's literature to academic papers.

Usage

Provide the text passage or describe the reading material (title, author, genre, length). Specify the reader's level and which comprehension skills to focus on: main idea, inference, vocabulary, author's purpose, or critical analysis.

Examples

• "Create comprehension questions for a 4th grade class reading Charlotte's Web chapters 5-8"
• "Design critical analysis prompts for high school students reading The Great Gatsby"
• "Build reading comprehension exercises for ESL adults working with a newspaper editorial"

Guidelines

• Include questions at multiple levels: literal (what happened), inferential (why), and evaluative (what do you think)
• Design pre-reading activities that activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading
• Teach vocabulary in context rather than pre-teaching definitions in isolation
• Use graphic organizers (story maps, Venn diagrams, cause-effect chains) to structure comprehension
• Include both during-reading checkpoints and post-reading reflection to maintain active engagement