"The most direct route to good reading comprehension is to make the word recognition process automatic so a student can focus all of his or her mental energy on the meaning." David Kilpatrick, learning disabilities and educational psychology professor, notes one of the key factors for successful reading.
While fluent and automatic decoding does not ensure that comprehension will occur, this is certainly a critical element. However, we do not have to wait for a student to be able to decode words automatically, even at a basic level, to teach and practice comprehension skills and strategies.
Interactive read-alouds and lessons with decodable readers at a student's skill level build these necessary comprehension skills simultaneously with decoding skills' sequential development. This is the goal of the Connect to Comprehension lessons.
See the daily lesson component goals at https://www.connectcomprehension.com/daily-lesson-components-1.