Comprehension skills are not only for the classroom but are life skills that need to be developed. You first learn to read and later you read to learn.
Comprehension is the decoding and understanding of spoken, written and visual texts.
Reading: The Best Workout
Learners with inadequate reading comprehension skills lack adequate ability to fully understand the many aspects of what they are reading. It is difficult for them to process the information which is presented in the text and it is also hard for them to connect new ideas to previously learned facts and they haven't learned to implement higher order thinking skills so they can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate new knowledge.
Reading Comprehension
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When children first learn to read, their biggest challenge is concentrated on decoding and pronouncing each word correctly. In order to become proficient readers, students have to be able to understand the meaning of what they read. This not only necessitates comprehension skills but fundamentally good thinking skills.
As students grow into mature readers, their thinking and comprehension skills should also mature.
Building Content Knowledge: Crucial for Reading
Reading comprehension involves the ability to not only read the lines but also the abstract step of “reading between the lines.” However, the next crucial step involves higher order thinking that takes reading between the lines one step farther. “Good readers” have the ability to read beyond the lines. Higher-order thinking skills enable students to do this and find the real value in the information they are reading. The goal of learning is to make new connections to our world and life. Readers who can use higher-order thinking not only show knowledge and understanding of the text, they can put the understanding of the text, and the information in new context and form relations between them.
Higher-order thinking is the ability to think beyond rote memorization of facts or knowledge. Rote memory recall is not really thinking. Higher order thinking skills involve actually doing something with the facts that we learn. When students use their higher order thinking skills that means they understand, they can find connections between many facts, they can manipulate them, and put them together in new ways. Most importantly they can apply them to find new solutions to problems.
http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension-and-higher-order-thinking-skills/
Poor Reading Skills
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"Students with poor reading comprehension skills lack adequate ability to truly understand the many facets of what they are reading. Processing the information presented in the text is hard for them. They also find it difficult to connect new ideas to previously learned facts and they haven’t learned to implement higher-order thinking skills so they can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate new knowledge."
Making Connections
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One of the goals of reading is to make new connections to our life and world. Readers who can use higher order thinking not only show knowledge and understanding of the text, they can put the information in new contexts and form relations between ideas.
Encourage Reading
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Parents can help their children to develop higher-order thinking skills with reading them a story before bed time. Ask questions about what you have read to make connections and see anologies, rather than asking what the story was about. Encourage your children to identify problems, dilemmas or humor so they can see themselves as problem-solvers.
Source: EBH Joubert. English Grammar
http://www.k12reader.com/reading-comprehension-and-higher-order-thinking-skills/
http://www.humanadvantage.com/training_programs/reading-comprehension-analytical-skills/
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