(R811) Reading Comprehension for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers Volume 1: History (the Big Bang to the Ancient Greeks)

Over the years, we’ve thought a lot about reading comprehension problems, and what to do about them.*

To improve reading comprehension skills, students should practice evidence-based oral and reading comprehension strategies together regularly using interesting texts, adult modeling, think alouds, reciprocal teaching, and scaffolded dialogues around summarizing, clarifying, question generating, and predicting (e.g. Clarke et al., 2010).

To help teachers and others working with students to model comprehension strategies, in this 24-page resource, we have prepared 10 short reading passages, each with 9 questions probing higher level reading comprehension skills at different levels of abstraction.

Comprehension questions include simple “look back and find” facts in the text, as well as questions that require reorganization of information, and abstract “why” and “how” questions requiring inferencing, prediction, retelling and other higher level language skills.

The passages are short and were selected to appeal to both younger and older students and older higher school students, including students with language and learning challenges.

The theme of this volume is World History, including passages about the Earth and the Universe, first life on Earth and the fossil record, agriculture and the domestication of animals, Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, the Library of Alexandria, Ancient Greek city states, and Ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

For more reading passages, see our:

• • Reading Comprehension Practice, Volume 1: short biographies and fables.
  • Reading Comprehension Practice, Volume 2: explanations of familiar things.
  • Reading Comprehension Practice, Volume 3: months of the year and annual events
  • Reading Comprehension Practice, Volume 4: issues in Australia
  • Reading Comprehension Practice, Volume 5: scientists

*You can read some of our thoughts and strategies for improving oral language and reading comprehension in our articles:

• • Reading comprehension problems and what to do about them.
  • Help your child to fill in the gaps, join the dots, and ready between the lines.
  • Six strategies to improve your child’s reading comprehension (and how to put them into practice)
  • Too many stories, not enough facts: free tips and resources to boost your child’s knowledge and reading comprehension skills.
  • Free, evidence-based study and learning strategies.