The Khaitan School, Noida, recently conducted an enriching English Workshop under its “Coffee at School” initiative, designed to help parents gain a deeper understanding of how language skills are nurtured in the classroom. The session aimed to strengthen the school–home partnership by equipping parents with practical, effective strategies to support their child’s learning journey with confidence and clarity.
Focusing on making comprehension meaningful and engaging, the workshop introduced parents to a range of active reading strategies, questioning techniques, and visualisation skills. The objective was to move beyond passive reading and encourage thoughtful engagement with texts, enabling children to become more reflective and analytical readers.
By the end of the session, parents were able to:
Differentiate between literal, inferential, and open-ended questions to better understand varying levels of comprehension
Support children in identifying and citing explicit details from texts with accuracy
Help learners interpret deeper meanings by connecting textual evidence with prior knowledge and experiences
Encourage meaningful, evidence-based discussions that explore the ‘why’ and ‘how’ within a text
The session commenced with an introduction to the concept of comprehension, emphasizing that it goes far beyond reading words—it involves understanding, connecting ideas, and thinking critically. Parents were guided on how strong comprehension skills contribute to vocabulary development, analytical thinking, and overall academic success across subjects.
A key focus of the workshop was exploring different types of questions—literal, inferential, and open-ended—and how each plays a crucial role in developing different levels of thinking in learners. The English educators demonstrated practical classroom strategies that help students locate explicit information while also encouraging them to infer deeper meanings by integrating textual clues with their own experiences.
An engaging interactive segment introduced the ‘I Think, I See, I Wonder’ activity, highlighting annotation as a powerful active reading strategy. Parents learned techniques such as underlining key ideas, circling unfamiliar words, writing questions, and highlighting important details to enhance a child’s engagement with a text.
The classic text ‘The Flight of Icarus’ was used as a model to demonstrate these strategies in action. Parents were introduced to the Skim and Scan method for answering literal questions efficiently, along with the use of contextual clues and logical reasoning for tackling inferential questions.
One of the most impactful aspects of the workshop was the introduction of visualisation techniques, particularly the concept of a ‘Mind Movie’. Parents were encouraged to help children create mental images while reading, thereby enhancing comprehension, memory retention, and emotional connection with the text. Through prompts like “What do you see?” and “What is the character doing?”, learners were guided to vividly imagine scenes—such as Icarus soaring through the clouds toward the sun—making reading a more immersive experience.
The workshop concluded with a reflective discussion, where parents shared their insights and discussed practical ways to implement these strategies at home. The session was met with enthusiastic participation and highly positive feedback, with parents appreciating the clarity, relevance, and effectiveness of the approaches shared.
More importantly, the workshop reinforced the importance of collaboration between school and home, empowering parents to take an active role in their child’s language development.
The English “Coffee at School” workshop proved to be highly enriching and insightful, successfully equipping parents with the tools needed to foster strong reading and comprehension skills. Through such initiatives, The Khaitan School continues to build a supportive learning ecosystem where parents and educators work hand in hand to nurture confident, thoughtful, and articulate learners.
