Although decoding comprises a bulk of reading instruction in first grade, comprehension remains the eventual goal. Comprehension relies heavily on knowledge of language and print in addition to knowledge about the world at large.
Comprehension requires inferential and evaluative thinking as a reader decodes individual words.
Comprehension can and must be directly taught in all grades. Comprehension instruction generally begins at home however, long before children come to school or even attend to print. As children and parents read together, especially stories that are read over and over, children begin building foundations for understanding. In school children need to be given time to read actual books and stories as opposed to reading in a workbook. Because first grade children spend so much time in the beginning of the year decoding, I teach comprehension strategies through books we read as a class.