3 Powerful Routines to Boost Reading Comprehension in Your Classroom

Are your students struggling with comprehension? If so, you’re in luck, because today we’re going to be talking about three powerful routines that will help you reset your approach to literacy instruction. We’re going to discuss how to explicitly teach vocabulary, establish a writing-about-reading routine, and implement a routine for fluency practice. These routines are grounded in research and will truly transform how your students engage with texts and build lasting comprehension skills.

Hey there, stellar teachers, and welcome to another episode of the Stellar Teacher Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Marye, and I’m so glad that you’re joining us today. We are in the middle of our comprehension reset challenge. If you’re participating in this challenge, I hope you’re already having some aha moments as you rethink your approach to comprehension in your classroom. If you haven’t signed up yet, don’t worry—you still have time. We’ve been sending out daily videos that share actionable strategies you can easily implement in your classroom, and these strategies will significantly impact your students’ comprehension. Even though the comprehension reset challenge started a few days ago, the daily videos will be available through January 18. So, if you haven’t signed up yet, head over to stellarteacher.com/reset and join us. We’ll also link to that in the show notes.

The main reason we created this challenge—and why I put this episode together—is that it’s January, the start of a new year. We really want to help you reset your approach to comprehension this semester. The start of the year is such a great opportunity to reflect and think about what went well, what didn’t go well, and what changes need to be made to ensure a successful semester. We want to share strategies we believe will positively impact your students’ comprehension.

In keeping with the comprehension reset theme, I’m going to share three literacy routines that will boost your students’ comprehension. If you don’t currently have any of these routines in place, now is the perfect time to reset and get them started. You still have a lot of the school year left. I don’t mean that in a discouraging way—quite the opposite. If you’re listening to this and thinking, “Why haven’t I been doing this all year?” don’t worry. There’s plenty of time to make a difference.

The first routine is explicitly teaching vocabulary. If you want your students to comprehend what they read, they need a robust vocabulary. Studies show that students need to know the meaning of at least 90 to 95 percent of the words in a text they are reading or listening to in order to fully comprehend it. That’s a lot of words. The good news is that even focusing on teaching a small number of words can have a significant impact on comprehension. Obviously, we don’t have time to explicitly teach every word our students will encounter, but even teaching one or two words—or a handful of words—each week will positively influence comprehension.

According to the authors of Shifting the Balance—a book we love and often recommend—research is very clear. When we teach students even a little about the new words they’ll encounter in a text, it almost always leads to better reading comprehension. I think, as teachers, we often feel like we don’t have enough time to slow down and teach vocabulary. Sometimes we treat vocabulary as a separate task from comprehension, thinking we just don’t have time for it. But the research is clear: vocabulary fuels comprehension. The larger a student’s vocabulary, the easier it is for them to understand what they read.

If we want our students to comprehend the texts they are reading, we don’t have an option—we have to make time to build their vocabulary. The good news is that research provides plenty of encouragement. Studies are clear that strong comprehension helps students acquire more vocabulary. It’s a reciprocal relationship: the larger a student’s vocabulary, the easier it is for them to comprehend a text, and vice versa—the easier it is for students to comprehend a text, the easier it becomes for them to acquire more vocabulary.

This is where the Matthew Effect comes in. If you haven’t heard of the Matthew Effect in reading, it refers to the phenomenon where children who start out with strong foundational reading skills tend to continue improving at a much faster pace than students who struggle or fall behind in reading. Over time, this gap widens significantly between strong and weak readers. It’s the idea that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, in terms of reading ability. Vocabulary is critical here—it’s one of the levers we can pull to help level the playing field and give students an opportunity to access more complex texts.

If you’re unsure how to explicitly teach vocabulary, here’s a quick rundown of a routine you can use with any text. First, you’ll want to select the words you’re going to introduce to your students. Before you begin reading aloud—whether it’s a chapter book, novel, science article, small group passage, or poem—look at the text and identify two or three words that your students might find unfamiliar or whose meanings they may not fully understand. Focus on words that are essential for understanding the text and likely to appear in other contexts—those tier two vocabulary words.

Once you’ve identified these words, you can follow a five-step process to explicitly teach them. First, introduce the word using a kid-friendly definition. Be mindful not to define words using other unfamiliar terms. If you use a dictionary like Webster’s or another online source, ensure the definition is accessible to students. The goal is to help them understand the meaning of the word, and overly complex definitions won’t serve that purpose. Online dictionaries designed for kids or English Language Learners often provide simple, effective definitions.

Next, analyze the word structure. Take a few minutes to identify elements such as roots, prefixes, or suffixes. You might also break the word into syllables. These steps not only help students understand the specific word but also equip them with tools for decoding and understanding unfamiliar words in the future.

The third step is to clarify the context. Provide students with a few example sentences. You can use the sentence where the word appears in the text, but it’s also helpful to offer additional sentences to show how the word is used in different contexts. For words with multiple meanings, this step is particularly important to ensure students understand how the word is being used in the specific text.

The fourth step is to help students connect the new word to existing word networks. Provide synonyms or antonyms that relate to the word to help students make connections to terms they already know. This serves as mental Velcro, increasing the likelihood that students will remember the word. Tools like Frayer models or semantic maps can also help students build these connections and deepen their understanding.

Finally, engage students with the word. Instead of immediately asking students to use the word in a sentence—which they might not feel confident doing yet—offer activities that set them up for success. For example, you could ask yes-or-no questions using the word, like, “Is it crucial to go to the mall every week to buy shoes?” (No.) or “Is it crucial to make sure your plants get sunlight and water?” (Yes.) You might also use sentence stems, such as, “The most crucial step in my morning routine is…” and let students complete the sentence. These activities give students a chance to interact with the word in ways that reinforce their understanding.

This five-step process can be used for any word in any text. If you’re not already using it, there’s no time like the present to get started. Make plans this week to introduce a vocabulary word using this routine and see how it can benefit your students.

The last step, step five, is to engage students with the word. Often, the go-to strategy is to ask students to use the word in a sentence. However, if you’re just introducing the word, they likely don’t have enough exposure or experience with it to confidently create their own sentences. Instead, give them opportunities to engage with the word in ways that make them feel competent in their understanding. For example, you could ask yes-or-no questions that use the word. If you’re introducing the word “crucial,” you might ask, “Is it crucial to go to the mall every week and buy a new pair of shoes?” (No.) or “Is it crucial to make sure your plant has enough sunlight and water?” (Yes.) These types of questions help students understand the meaning of the word.

You could also provide students with a sentence stem that incorporates the word and have them complete the sentence. For instance, you might say, “The most crucial step in my morning routine is…” and let them fill it in. Ideally, they would respond with something like “brushing my teeth” or “taking a shower.” This allows them to engage with the word in a way that ensures success and reinforces their understanding.

This five-step process can be applied to any word found in any text. If you’re not currently using it with your students, there’s no better time to start. Make plans this week to introduce a vocabulary word using this process and see how it enhances your students’ understanding.

The next routine to consider adding to your literacy block is writing about reading. Writing about reading has a significant impact on students’ comprehension. In Shifting the Balance, the authors state that when literacy instruction amplifies both reading and writing, it leads to significantly improved reading comprehension.

It might surprise you that writing can impact reading comprehension, but think about it. When students write about what they’ve read, they have to put their thoughts on paper. This requires them to mentally sift through their understanding of the text and clarify their interpretation. Writing about reading is a way for students to make their thinking visible.

In 2011, Stephen Graham and Michael Hebert conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of writing on reading comprehension. A meta-analysis is a statistical method that combines the results of multiple studies to draw a single conclusion. Their research showed that writing about reading positively enhances comprehension. Notably, writing about reading had an especially significant impact on weaker readers and writers. They found that 83% of the studies and experiments reviewed indicated a positive effect. Knowing there’s a strategy that can substantially benefit struggling readers and writers makes it clear that we should prioritize this in our classrooms.

Writing about reading benefits all students. In another study by Graham, it was found that writing summaries—not necessarily formal summaries, but even brief notes about what they’ve read—improved comprehension more effectively than answering questions. Think about how often you ask your students comprehension questions. Probably all the time. When I was in the classroom, I frequently asked my students multiple comprehension questions throughout the text. Now consider how often you ask your students to summarize what they’ve read. In my experience, I didn’t ask for summaries nearly as often as I asked comprehension questions.

If we know that writing about reading is so impactful, it’s clear that we need to incorporate it more into our classrooms. Creating a writing-about-reading routine can be really simple

First, you need to ensure that writing about reading is a regular part of your classroom routine. Research is clear: you’ll only see the comprehension benefits if this is done consistently. If you’re only assigning the occasional writing-about-reading task, perhaps every few weeks, it won’t benefit your students as much as if it’s something you incorporate consistently throughout the week. You’ll need to figure out what works best for both you and your students in terms of capacity. Maybe this is something you can do daily, or perhaps you need to start with once or twice a week. Begin by carving out time on a weekly basis, and then make it a consistent part of your schedule so it happens regularly..

The second step in creating this routine is to get your students comfortable with their writing-about-reading expectations. You don’t need to assign a new type of writing task every time. At the same time, you can keep them engaged by providing variety. They don’t always have to write a summary, but they should feel confident and comfortable knowing how to respond to a text in writing. One approach is to rotate between three different types of writing tasks.

One option could be having your students summarize what they’ve read. Another option is to have them write a review of the text, sharing their personal reactions. The third option could involve having students write a question about what they’re reading and then answer it, all in writing. That’s it—simple and manageable. Building a writing-about-reading routine can be as easy as finding time throughout the week to implement it and rotating through these two or three options. Writing about reading is incredibly beneficial and should be incorporated into your literacy block as often as possible.

The final routine to consider incorporating into your classroom is a fluency routine. Yes, fluency—and you might be wondering how that impacts comprehension. But by consistently working on fluency, you’re actually helping your students improve their reading comprehension. According to the 2018 NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Study, 36% of fourth graders performed below the basic achievement level in reading. For many of these students, reading connected text fluently—such as a paragraph or multiple paragraphs—was a significant challenge. This is why we need to prioritize fluency, even in upper elementary.

When students are fluent, they don’t have to think about how to read individual words or how to phrase them with expression. This means they free up more mental energy to focus on comprehension. If you have students who struggle with fluency, it’s likely that they’re dedicating much of their mental energy to decoding the text rather than understanding it. Helping students become more fluent readers allows their reading to become automatic, giving them the capacity to focus on the content and meaning of the text.

To support this, we need to be intentional about emphasizing fluency in our classrooms. The good news is that you can use any text to practice fluency, and you can do it at any time. However, having a routine in place will make it much easier to consistently incorporate fluency practice into your schedule. Here at STC, we love a good routine, and we have an easy weekly fluency routine that you can implement. With a routine in place, your fluency practice will run on autopilot—you won’t need to overthink it from week to week. Just follow your fluency routine, and you’ll be golden

Your fluency routine will follow a five-day structure, reflecting the setup of a typical school week. On Monday, you’re going to introduce a passage to your students. The passage could be a poem specifically selected for fluency practice, or it could be a paragraph from a novel or an article you’re reading. You might flag that paragraph as the text selection you’ll focus on for fluency practice throughout the week. On Monday, students will read the passage and do a self-assessment of their fluency. During this self-assessment, students will reflect on attributes like their pacing, expression, and phrasing. When students consistently self-reflect on their fluency, it helps them become more aware of what makes a fluent reader and gives them specific areas to focus on. For instance, if they notice their expression wasn’t strong or their pacing was inconsistent, they’ll have a clear understanding of what to work on during fluency practice..

On Tuesday, students will revisit the same text, but this time, the class will engage in choral reading. Choral reading means the entire class reads the text selection together. This group reading helps students match their pacing and expression to the group, effectively encouraging them to read the text with good fluency because that’s how the group is reading it.

On Wednesday, students will revisit the same text selection again, but now they’ll practice echo reading. For echo reading, you, as the teacher, will read a sentence aloud, and the students will echo it back to you by reading the same sentence.

On Thursday, students will read the same passage, but this time they’ll practice with a partner. Partner reading allows them to engage with the text alongside a buddy, giving them an additional opportunity to hear and practice fluent reading.

For the activities on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday—choral reading, echo reading, and partner practice—you can switch them up as needed. If there’s a specific type of fluency practice your students enjoy or benefit from the most, you could repeat it for all three days. For example, you could do three days of choral reading or three days of partner practice. The key is to ensure they’re practicing fluency with a scaffolded approach. This group practice, along with hearing other readers, plays a significant role in improving individual fluency.

On Friday, students will do a mini performance reading and another self-assessment to evaluate how they’ve improved since Monday. The performance reading could involve students reading aloud to the entire class, but that would likely take a long time. Instead, they could “perform” (in air quotes) for a partner, a small group of three or four students, or even record themselves reading. If you have a buddy class, they could perform by reading to those students. After their performance, they’ll engage in a self-assessment to reflect on their progress.

The routine is simple: each day, students engage in repeated readings of the same text, allowing them to build fluency while also providing opportunities for self-reflection. Occasionally, you should listen to your students read. You could even time their readings to show how their speed improves over time. However, fluency isn’t just about reading faster. A student might read a passage more quickly on Friday than on Monday, but faster reading doesn’t necessarily mean they’re reading with expression or good phrasing. While timing can be helpful on occasion, it’s more important to emphasize all the attributes of fluency. Without fluency, true comprehension is nearly impossible, so we need to be intentional about providing students with fluency practice throughout the week.

Now, here’s a little disclaimer with all of these routines: none of them are going to give you a quick fix to the comprehension challenges that exist in your classroom. Because here’s the truth—there is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to helping students understand what they’re reading. There are no strategies or tricks that will immediately get your students to comprehend a text.

Oak Hill, Caine, and Elbro share the following in one of their articles: “Understanding that reading is a complex cognitive activity dependent on a range of knowledge bases and skills working in coordination with each other to achieve understanding is foundational to effective instruction.” My challenge to you this semester is to really slow down and intentionally establish routines and structures that, when implemented consistently, will lead to improved comprehension over time.

And of course, after listening to this episode, you now have three routines that you can start putting into place in your classroom. If you feel like your approach to building comprehension needs a little bit of a reset, join us for our Comprehension Reset Challenge. It’s happening this week, and there’s still time for you to sign up. You can learn more at stellarteacher.com/reset.

Now, I’m just going to give a little plug for next week’s episode. Be sure to tune in next Monday, because I have a special guest, Molly Ness. She’s a reading researcher, author, and an expert on all things related to our favorite activity: the read-aloud. I know reading aloud is one of teachers’ favorite things to do in their classrooms, and Molly has so many great insights to share. Our conversation might be one of my favorite interviews, and I really think you’re going to be encouraged by what she has to share. So, I will see you next week. Until then, have a stellar week.

Thanks so much for joining me today. If you enjoyed today’s episode and are finding value in this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you subscribe and leave a five-star positive review. This helps me spread the word to more and more teachers just like you. Don’t forget to join me over on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany, and you can also find links and resources from this episode in the show notes at stellarteacher.com. I’ll see you back here next week.