Judy Said:

Does anyone know of any websites or books that I could use to help my son with his reading comprehension?

We Answered:

sorry, no clue what keystage 2 is.

but for reading comprehension i'd focus on three things: his vocabulary, reading aloud to him, and stopping his reading (and your reading aloud) every once in a while to see what he's understanding so far. vocabulary can be improved with all kinds of word games (e.g. scrabble, boggle, password or password jr., "fictionary" (take a word he doesn't know and have everyone make up a definition, then add in the real definition and have people vote for the entry they think is right), etc. It's also improved with lots of conversation in which you don't screen out harder "adult" words when you talk to him.

read aloud to him a lot, no matter what age he is (not in place of his reading to himself, but in addition). he will be able to understand much harder things than he can read to himself. the harder selections will stretch his vocabulary and comprehension, and you will have a better sense of when he's getting stuck. stop when you read a difficult passage and ask him what he thinks that means, or what he thinks will happen next, or if he likes that character or thinks they're doing the right thing or whatever. you will be able to tell how much he is getting and can go back and reread things that he missed or otherwise figure out where his reading comprehension problems really are. you can do the same when he's reading to himself.

also, talk to the teacher. good teachers will have lots of input into what they think is causing a reading comprehension problem and how they think you might be able to address it.

Renee Said:

Reading Comprehension problem?

We Answered:

Textbooks can be very wordy. I have found that the point sometimes gets lost in the author's need to feel scholastic, leading to a lot of repetition and purple prose. Weed out the excess by hi-lighting the actual information and leave out the redundant and "overly-explanatory". Reading only the hi-lighted parts, take notes and take them in your own words.

Also, try apply the concepts to examples you are familiar with. I once taught a very weak student economics concepts using video game systems. Endless reading had done nothing for him, but when put into terms he understood, he not only "got it", he was able to expand on it independently.

One last thing, I have an 8-Pack of coloured hi-lighters. Colour coding works wonders for me. For instance, you may want to hi-light different theories different colours, or hi-light all definitions one colour, theories, another colour, criticisms another colour, etc.

Hope this helps!