Reading and understanding a text

​​In a nutshell 

The act of both reading and understanding a text is called comprehension. In this summary, you will learn how to develop your comprehension skills so you can read and fully understand a text. 

Comprehension

When you read a piece of writing and can show that you understand the text, either by talking about it or responding correctly to questions, this is known as comprehension. Comprehension is a skill you use regularly, for example, when you look at the timetable at a bus stop or read a recipe before cooking. 

Close reading

Actively using the facts given in a text and engaging in thinking, based on conventions of its genre and any other clues, is necessary to fully understand a text. To do this, first read the text, make sense of what is written and ask yourself some questions to check you've understood what the text is saying. 

Example 

This is an example of a very simple text, followed by a question to test your comprehension.

​'The fox is wearing a light blue waistcoat, a light blue hat and round glasses.'​

What colour waistcoat is the fox wearing?

If you gave the answer 'The fox is wearing a light blue waistcoat' then you are showing your reading comprehension skills, well done! 

Note: With longer paragraphs, pages or even books of writing, comprehension can get more challenging because of the extra details.