The Comprehension Box

The Comprehension Box is a comprehensive educational resource designed to enhance reading comprehension and critical thinking skills in primary school children.

Tailored to meet the needs of diverse pupils, this innovative series develops 12 specific comprehension strategies through engaging text-based activities.

Download a sample of The Comprehension Box

Understanding comprehension

Comprehension lies at the heart of effective reading. It involves not just decoding words, but also understanding their meaning and significance within the context of a text. The Comprehension Box is designed to help pupils master this essential skill and become proficient readers.

What’s inside The Comprehension Box?

• 150 illustrated cards: Explore a rich variety of texts across different genres, each beautifully illustrated to captivate young minds.
• 15 colour-coded sections: Easily differentiate instruction and match cards to pupils’ reading abilities with our intuitive colour-coding system.
• Pupil tracking sheet pad: Monitor progress effortlessly with our convenient tracking sheets.
• Questions cards: Encourage critical thinking with thought-provoking questions on the back of each card.
• Answer cards: Separate answer cards for immediate feedback and self-assessment.
• Scope and sequence chart: Navigate the curriculum seamlessly with our comprehensive chart outlining progression and scope.
• Teachers Guide: A comprehensive Teachers Guide providing suggestions on how to explicitly teach reading comprehension strategies along with answers and pupil and teacher recording sheets.

Mastering the 12 reading comprehension strategies

Within The Comprehension Box, pupils will develop proficiency in 12 key comprehension strategies, each crucial for comprehending and analysing text. These include identifying main ideas, making predictions, drawing inferences, and summarising information.

• Understanding words
• Identifying the main idea
• Finding similarities and differences
• Concluding
• Inferring
• Fact or opinion
• Finding information
• Sequencing
• Predicting
• Summarising
• Cause and effect
• Point of view and purpose

How to use The Comprehension Box

The coloured sections enable the teachers to differentiate the cards and match them to the wide-ranging reading abilities of their pupils. Pupils working on the same coloured section can alternate cards and engage in various activities over 10 lessons.

With a flexible structure designed for integration into the existing curriculum, teachers can use this resource to support and enhance reading comprehension skills across diverse subject areas.

• Flexible grouping: Tailor instruction to the pupils' needs by grouping them according to reading level and assigning colour-coded cards.
• Independent learning: Foster pupil autonomy and free up teacher time by allowing capable readers to work at their own pace.
• Differentiation made easy: Assign cards based on pupils’ abilities, ensuring each pupil receives targeted support
• Progressive difficulty: Progress through each colour-coded section, gradually increasing in reading difficulty to facilitate continuous growth.
• Station activities: Engage pupils in small groups over 10 lessons, promoting active learning and collaboration.

Benefits for teachers and pupils in the classroom – Why choose The Comprehension Box?

• Develops reading comprehension and higher order thinking skills: Foster critical thinking and deeper understanding with varied question levels such as literal, inferential and applied.
• Cross-curricular integration: Closely aligned with other curricular areas such as Science, Geography and History providing opportunities for cross-curricular links and enhanced learning outcomes.
• Flexible teaching support: Teachers can devise and implement effective reading comprehension programmes tailored to their classroom needs, saving valuable time and effort.
• Promotes autonomy: The self-correcting feature of the cards promotes pupil autonomy and independence (separate answer cards are provided), while the recording sheets allow easy monitoring and management of pupil progress.
• Engaging content: High interest reading materials across genres, with a balance of fiction and non-fiction texts with attractive illustrations.
• Monitoring comprehension progress: The Pupil Tracking Sheet Pad allows for easy monitoring of pupil progress, empowering teachers to track growth and identify areas for improvement.

Exploring each reading comprehension strategy

Reading comprehension skills and strategies are specific techniques that readers use to interpret and understand texts. They enable children to engage with the text at a deeper level, making connections, predicting outcomes, and drawing inferences. 

The Comprehension Box focuses on 12 key comprehension strategies, equipping pupils with the tools they need to become proficient readers.

• Understanding words: Extract the meaning behind unfamiliar words and phrases.
• Identifying the main idea: Recognising key elements and the main idea within a text.
• Finding similarities and differences: Explore the connections and distinctions between the main character, events, or ideas within a narrative text.
• Concluding: Draw logical conclusions based on evidence presented within the text, synthesising information to form a cohesive understanding.
• Inferring: Read between the lines, using clues and context to infer meaning beyond the explicit text.
• Fact or opinion: Distinguish between objective facts and subjective opinions presented within the text.
• Finding information: Navigate through the text to locate key details, extracting relevant information to support reading comprehension.
• Sequencing events: Arrange events or information in chronological order, understanding the sequence of actions or steps in a process.
• Making predictions: Anticipating what may happen next based on prior knowledge and context clues.
• Summarising: Condensing key points and new information from expository text into the pupil’s own words.
• Cause and effect: Explore the relationships between events, identifying the causes and consequences presented within the text.
• Point of view and purpose: Analyse the author's perspective and intent, considering how point of view influences the presentation of information.

Unlock the full potential of every pupil with The Comprehension Box 

Discover the power of The Comprehension Box to transform reading experiences for primary school pupils. With its rich array of texts, engaging activities, and comprehensive teaching support, this resource is a must-have for teachers seeking to foster literacy and critical thinking skills in their classrooms.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to teach comprehension?

The best way to teach reading comprehension strategies is through explicit instruction and the use of effective comprehension strategies. By guiding students in understanding how to extract meaning from texts, teachers can help children improve their reading skills and become critical thinkers. The Comprehension Box offers a comprehensive resource for explicitly teaching these skills in an engaging and accessible manner.

Why are reading comprehension skills important?

Reading comprehension skills are essential for academic success and lifelong learning. They enable individuals to understand, interpret, and analyse written material across various subjects and contexts, fostering critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving abilities.

What’s in The Comprehension Box?

The Comprehension Box series offers a range of resources tailored to different age groups:

• The Comprehension Box 1 - for 1st-2nd Class
• The Comprehension Box 2 - for 3rd-4th Class
• The Comprehension Box 3 - for 5th-6th Class

Each box includes a variety of colourfully illustrated cards, comprehensive teacher guidance, pupil tracking sheets, and answer cards, providing a holistic approach to developing text comprehension skills.

What are reading comprehension strategies for reading?

Reading comprehension strategies are techniques and skills that readers use to understand and interpret texts. Some specific strategies include identifying main ideas, making inferences, summarising, and predicting outcomes. The Comprehension Box covers 12 key comprehension strategies to support pupils’ reading development.

What is an example of summarising?

Summarising involves condensing key points and ideas from a text into a concise overview. For example, summarising a story might involve identifying the main characters, setting, and central plot events in a brief retelling.

What is an example of cause and effect?

Cause and effect explore the relationships between events, identifying the causes that lead to specific consequences. For example, in a story about a character who forgets their homework (cause), the effect might be receiving a low grade or facing consequences from the teacher.