Tip 8: Pitfalls in Answering Comprehension Questions

Comprehension questions are very new to P1 students, when answering them, there's a tendency to lift answers straight partly from the question and partly from the given passage. Here are a few very common pitfalls that kids encounter:

1) Using the correct tense when answering the question.
E.g When did she eat the ice-cream?
Without thinking much about grammar, some kids may give their answer as "She eat (or eats) the ice-cream after dinner time.", when they should write "She ate the ice-cream after dinner time."

Bring words like "did" to their attention and remind them repeatedly that answers have to be provided in the tense required.

2) Looking out for singular or plural use of verbs
E.g Whom does she like?
Following closely how the question is asked, kids may quickly write their answer as "She like Mary.", when it should be "She likes Mary".

Remind them as much as possible to be careful about the verbs with and without "s" and use them correctly when doing comprehension questions.

3) Lifting answers from passage
Kids sometimes think that as along as they have found the answer in the passage and reproduce it in the answer, how it is given is not important.
E.g Where did she go?

Some kids may lift the entire sentence from the passage and write "She went to to the market with her mother.", when only "She went to the market." is expected.


Teach them to answer intelligently; tell them comprehension is not about copying sentences from the passage but really understanding what is required and answering what is required.
Reiterate by giving this example to your kid: When I ask you, "What's your name", you will answer "My name is Jerrie.", and there is no need to say "My name is Jerrie and I like to play the piano."