The Reading Comprehension Mistake I Didn't Know I Was Making

 

For years, I thought my middle school students simply needed more reading comprehension practice.

I was wrong.

One December, after our second round of state reading assessments, I sat staring at my students' scores. I couldn't reconcile what I was seeing.

These were the same students who eagerly participated in class discussions. They understood the stories we read together. They could explain a character's motivation, discuss the plot, and share thoughtful insights that made me smile because I knew they truly understood what they had read.

Yet when those same students sat down to answer standardized reading comprehension questions, many of them struggled.

If you've ever looked at your students' test scores and thought, "But I know they understand this," you're not alone.

That was exactly where I found myself.

I kept asking the same question:

What was happening between what my students understood...and what they could show on the test?

Like many teachers, I assumed they simply needed more reading comprehension practice. So I gave them more passages, more comprehension questions, and more opportunities to practice.

But something still didn't add up.

Then I stopped looking at the passages.  I started looking at the questions.

That's when I realized something that completely changed the way I teach middle school reading comprehension.

It wasn't the reading standard that was getting in my students' way. It was the language wrapped around it.

Why Students Struggle with Reading Comprehension Questions

Standardized reading comprehension tests don't just measure whether students understand a passage. They also measure whether students understand the language used in the questions.

Words like develop, infer, convey, support, compare, and analyze appear over and over again in question stems.

Then one day I had a thought that made me laugh.

No middle school student has ever looked across the cafeteria and asked,

"Hey...what's developing over there?"

They say,

"What's going on?"

or

"What's happening?"

They're simply not using words like develop in everyday conversation.

So why was I expecting them to instantly understand what a standardized test was asking when it used that language?

The more I studied released test questions and my state's test item specifications, the more I noticed the same academic words appearing again and again.

It wasn't that my students couldn't comprehend what they were reading.

Sometimes they simply didn't understand what the question was asking them to do.

The Biggest Lesson I Learned 

Students don't just need to learn how to read the passage.

They need to learn how to understand the question.

One Reading Comprehension Strategy Changed Everything

Instead of giving my students more reading comprehension practice, I decided to try something different.

Before we practiced a reading standard, I began previewing the kinds of questions students would eventually encounter on standardized tests.

First, I rounded up the academic words that appeared most often in the state test questions.

Then, I explicitly taught those words using student-friendly language before students ever had to answer a test question.

Next, we discussed what the word means in state test questions.

For example, if the word was "develop" I would teach the meaning of this word as growth or change.  And if the test question was "How is the theme developed?" we would discuss that this question means "How did the theme grow or change?"

Suddenly, students had a key to understanding that wasn't there before!

Teaching Students How to Understand Reading Comprehension Questions

Of course, I didn't want students to depend on me forever.

Eventually, they needed to recognize these academic words on their own.

That's why I developed a simple strategy I call MAP.

When students encounter a reading comprehension question, they:

• Mark the important academic word.
• Ask themselves what the question is really asking them to do.
• Pick the answer that best matches both the word and the question.

The strategy is intentionally simple.

The goal isn't to give students another worksheet.

The goal is to give them a process they can use independently whenever they encounter unfamiliar academic language on a reading assessment.

Click here to get a free sample of the MAP strategy to use in your classroom.

How Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Improved Reading Comprehension

The change wasn't immediate, but it was noticeable.

By the time our spring assessment came around in May, I saw something different.

Students approached the questions with more confidence because they understood the language they were reading.

And yes...

Their performance improved too.

From One Classroom Discovery to a Complete Reading Intervention System

That classroom discovery completely changed the way I approach middle school reading comprehension instruction.

But it also led me to another question.

Once students understood the language of the questions, how could I give them focused practice on one reading skill at a time without overwhelming them?

That question eventually became the Reading Task Lab.

The Reading Task Lab is my classroom-tested reading comprehension intervention system that provides students with targeted practice on one reading task at a time, using scaffolded, standards-aligned questions. Instead of practicing multiple standards all at once, students build confidence by mastering one reading skill before moving to the next.

That same journey led me to create a Reading Diagnostic System that helps teachers identify exactly which reading standards students need before deciding where to begin.

Looking back, I realize the biggest mistake I was making wasn't believing my students couldn't comprehend what they read.

The mistake was assuming they understood the language of the questions.

When students understand the language of the question, they can finally show what they know.

Learn more about the Reading Task Lab:

Thanks for stopping by!

Pin This Post for Later:

Don’t spend hours searching for that great idea you found.  Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily come back when you are ready.  You’ll be glad you did!