reading strategies that build reading comprehension

Activating prior knowledge

Pre-reading strategy: asks students what they already know about a subject

Use KWL chart

Schema building

Stored clusters of concepts of knowledge from previous experiences. Schema and background knowledge are synonymous.

Help readers actively relate to their own knowledge to ideas in the text.

Clarifying

During reading

“Fix-up” strategy— students monitor comprehension by asking questions, rereading, and searching for context clues when the text is confusing.

Generating Questions

During reading,

Students ask and answer questions at key points in the text

Also good for facilitating discussion

Paraphrasing

Happens at key points during and after reading.

Similar to retelling and summarizing but takes it further by incorporating the new knowledge into student thinking. students reword what the author said.

Perfect for monitoring comprehension

Easy formative assessment to guide future instructional support.

Analyzing

Analysis happens during close reads and after the reading is over. Students re-read key pieces of text with a specific task or question in mind, developing deeper levels of understanding.

Involves:

• metacognition— being aware of thought process. Teacher models

• Comprehension— students must think deeply

  • questioning: students ask questions based on what they’re reading

  • Summarizing: students summarize what they just read

  • Predicting: students share what they think will happen

Summarizing

After-reading strategy

Students synthesize details and information presented in the text into a statement that sums up the main idea.

Determining Text complexity

Use several data points to measure text complexity.

1. Quantitative measures.

   • sentence length

   • Readability measures (Flesch Kincaid

Reading levels, lexile levels, numbers of words per page.

2. Qualitative measures or data that is non/numerical

• observations

• Surveys

• Standards

• Anecdotal notes

Student interest surveys, observations, reading response journals

3. Professional judgement: applying relevant training; knowledge, and experience to choosing text and resources for students

Students’ mental processing, reading skills, readiness, prior knowledge, and maturity/sensitivity