To deepen comprehension of a text, students must progress from simply identifying the words in a piece of writing to understanding the ideas those words represent. Students may need to make inferences, draw conclusions, and build associations to construct meaning from the text. Once students reach this level of understanding, they can engage with and form responses to these ideas.

As students become more proficient readers, the texts they engage with and draw meaning from should become more complex in structure, language, and/or content. Within and across grade levels, students are expected to be exposed to challenging texts that allow them the opportunity to practice and master new skills.

As students engage with texts of increasing complexity, they must understand how to assess their own comprehension. Students also need to know how to use strategies to address and overcome specific challenges they have in understanding the text. For example, students in this grade should understand how to annotate sections of text as they read to capture predictions and questions they need to confirm the answers to before moving on in the text. As students develop self-awareness about how they think, they are better prepared to become independent learners.