Improve Reading Comprehension Skills Using L Frank Baum's the Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz is a great book that can help your child improve his or her reading comprehension skills.

You can have your child use the reading strategies he or she learns in school while reading The Wizard of Oz or your child can use the strategies while you read the book out loud.

Here is an excerpt from the book that provides an example of how your child can improve his or her reading comprehension skills:

"Little Toto, now that he had an enemy to face, ran barking toward the Lion, and the great beast had opened his mouth to bite the dog, when Dorothy, fearing Toto would be killed, and heedless of danger, rushed forward and slapped the Lion upon his nose as hard as she could, while she cried out:
"Don't you dare to bite Toto! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a poor little dog!"
"I didn't bite him," said the Lion, as he rubbed his nose with his paw where Dorothy had hit it.
"No, but you tried to," she retorted. "You are nothing but a big coward."

While reading the text, your child can incorporate the following reading strategies:

Visualization
Visualizing when reading helps readers make the words on the page real and meaningful. When students create pictures in their minds, they become more involved with the text.

Ask your child what part he or she visualized. Your child might say that he or she visualized the lion opening its big mouth. Or perhaps your child visualized the part when Dorothy slapped the lion on the nose.

Making Connections
Your child will have a better understanding of the text when he or she can make personal and text connections to the written material.

Have your child make connections with the characters in the story. For example, your child might have seen a real lion at the zoo. This is a text to self connection.

Or maybe your child can connect to Dorothy's bravery. Your child probably didn't hit a lion on the nose, but maybe your child once performed a brave act. This is another text to self connection. Lastly, your child may have just done a report on lions, read a book about large cats, or read another book such as the Chronicles of Narnia. All of which contain references to lions. This type of connection is a text to text connection.

Inferring
Inferring (also known as thinking) is absorbing what is known from clues from the text, and thinking about the theme, moral, making speculations, and predictions. The reader must make 'guesses' and create their own meaning from the text. Inferring is taking what is written and making discoveries.

You can ask your child to make an inference about Dorothy's character. Have your child look for clues based on her actions. She slapped the lion in order to protect her dog, Toto. Your child can infer that she is, "brave", "caring", and "protective".

Classic books such as The Wizard of Oz contain a rich vocabulary with descriptive characters, plot, and settings. Have your child use the reading strategies he or she learns in school while reading high quality books and your child should improve his or her overall reading comprehension skills.