📚 English · English Thinking

Reading for Meaning

Understand that reading is about making meaning, not just saying words correctly — a text that can be decoded but not understood has not been read

Typical age: 5–6 years

“If your child reads something aloud correctly but then can't tell you what it was about, do they recognise that reading means understanding — not just saying the words?”

0 / 2 mastered

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Needs first

Feeling of not understanding
Understanding that reading means making meaning is the English-domain grounding of the universal habit of noticing when you don't understand

Unlocks next

Connecting reading to experience
Linking reading to personal experience depends on approaching reading as a meaning-making activity
Monitoring ComprehensionREQUIRED
Noticing the gap between decoding and understanding requires first having the foundational idea that reading means making meaning