Reading Comprehension Help – The Character In a Book

What’s In A Reading Test?

A reading test almost always requires that the reader answer reading comprehension questions about the characters in a book A good fiction story gives its characters animated and sometimes exaggerated personalities. In a reading test a reader should be able to recognize and analyze those personalities and answer questions about those characters. Additionally, a good reader should be able to identify character traits discussed at the end of this article.

Reading Comprehension Questions

Reading comprehension questions will often refer to a character’s actions asking the reader to interpret those actions. To do this a reader will have to rely on inferencing. Inferencing is the ability to guess or predict what a character will do, or how they feel. The question asked is, why did this character behave in a certain way ? Therefore, the reader must guess or predict what a character is thinking by either actions, inactions, what is said or what is not said. Body language and reactions are important too.

DIY – Reading Comprehension Help

You can teach this to your child at home. Family members make the best characters. For example, examine a sibling’s actions. Have an open discussion with your child about why Judy (sibling) came home from school crying. Judy does not say why she’s crying, but your child should be able to guess or predict how Judy is feeling. Perhaps, Judy did not have a good day at school or on the way home.

This may be a reading test question. Was Judy happy or sad when she came home from school in chapter 3? The right answer would be, she is sad. A critical thinking question will ask the reader to think outside the box by asking , how do you know? One good answer would be, because Judy was crying when she came home. When I cry, I am sad. This is an excellent answer and would most likely be the best answer because the reader was able to infer , by comparison, that Judy’s actions (crying) showed she was sad.

At Home – Reading Comprehension Help

Whenever you are at home have your child guess or predict the reasons behind the many actions of different family members. Always discuss the reasons why, and don’t forget to ask the question, how do you know? Make a game out of it and apply this activity to television shows or movie characters.

How do you know, is a question asked often on a reading test. Failure to answer this question will result in partial credit . Too many partial answers lead to low reading test scores.

As always, the earlier these discussions occur the better. A child in first or second grade is not too young to learn this activity.

Reading Comprehension Help -The Character in A Book

Reading test questions also ask the reader to identify personality traits in a character. Below is a very short list of character traits and you can find lots more on the internet. Talk about these character traits with your child and explain what they mean if your child does not know. Use character traits to describe family members. A reading test question about character traits will ask – name 2 character traits to describe Judy. Again, a reader must be able to answer the question and be able to explain, how do you know?