A Review of Evan-Moor’s Reading Comprehension Fundamentals

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I have been a fan of Evan Moor e-books for a while. I have used their geography, science, history pockets, daily math practice, and daily reading comprehension practice books for years. Most of these books are available for individual grade level content. Evan Moor released a new book this year called “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” and it was immediately on my list of books I needed to get. I was both surprised and very excited to get a free promotional copy. I picked the first grade version and have been using it for several weeks with my first grader.

Overview of Reading Comprehension Fundamentals

Evan Moor’s “Daily Reading Comprehension” book includes passages for the child to read and then a series of questions to answer about the passage. Over the course of several years, I have used the 1st through 4th grade version of this book. The new series, “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” is designed to be used as a companion to this first book. If the child is missing a certain type of question in the “Daily Reading Comprehension” practice book, the instructor can pull up the missing comprehension skill in the “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book to teach the missing skill. The new “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book not only teaches specific comprehension skills, but also provides practice in using that specific skill.

Before the “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book came out, my first grader had already finished the first grade “Daily Reading Comprehension” book. She was not ready to move on to book 2 and still struggled with comprehension. Instead of moving on, I used “The Basic Reading Comprehension Kit for Hyperlexia and Autism” and am currently using “The Reading Comprehension Kit for Hyperlexia and Autism Level 2” (both published by Linguisystems) to work on comprehension skills. Instead of using Evan-Moor’s “Daily Reading Comprehension” book in conjunction with the new “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book, I am going through the new book with my first grader sequentially to work on comprehension skills.

Benefits of Reading Comprehension Fundamentals

The “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” first grade book addresses comprehension skills from fiction, nonfiction, and informational types of texts. Comprehension strategies are specifically taught and practiced in the lessons. This book can be used to teach specific missing comprehension skills based on analyzing what types of questions the child is missing in the “Daily Reading Comprehension” practice book or can be used in sequence to address broad reading comprehension challenges.

Limitations of Reading Comprehension Fundamentals

In order to benefit from the “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book, a child would need to have close to grade level language comprehension skills. A child with limited language comprehension who is truly hyperlexic (can decode and read words but does not understand their meaning) would benefit more from Linguisystem’s “Basic Reading Comprehension Kit for Hyperlexia and Autism.”

When initially looking through the first grade “Reading Comprehension Fundamentals” book, it seemed like many of the included passages were on the long side for a first grader. If a passage is too long for my first grader, we take turns reading sentences and have been able to get through the lessons without any problems.

Final Recommendations

 I do highly recommend Evan-Moor’s “Reading Comprehension Fundamtentals” book to work on reading comprehension skills. It is the perfect companion for their “Reading Comprehension Daily Practice” books.

Try before you buy. CLICK HERE to go to Evan-Moor’s website to download a free sample of Reading Comprehension Fundamentals.

*Update September 2018* My daughter has finished the Reading Comprehension Fundamentals Grade 1 book. Both her reading and comprehension skills have progressed since starting this book. When we began, the stories seemed a little bit too long for her. Over time, she became more and more independent while reading the passages. By the end of the book, she could read the stories independently and complete the learning activities with minimal to no help.

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