Reading

Comprehension

Strategies

Understanding What

You Read

Seven Strategies of Successful Readers:

1. They use existing knowledge to make sense

of new information.

2. They ask questions about the text before,

during, and after reading.

3. They draw inferences from the text.

4. They monitor their comprehension.

5. They use “fix-up” strategies when meaning

breaks down.

6. They determine what is important.

7. They synthesize information to create new

thinking

Signals of Confusion:

1. The voice inside the reader’s head isn’t

interacting with the text.

2. The camera inside the reader’s head shuts of.

3. The reader’s mind begins to wander.

4. The reader can’t remember what has been

read.

5. Clarifying questions asked by the reader are

not answered.

6. The reader reencounters a character and has

no recollection when that character was

introduced.

Fix-it Strategies:

• Make a connection between the text and your

life, your knowledge of the world, or another text.

• Make a prediction.

• Stop and think about what you have already

read.

• Ask yourself a question and try to answer it.

• Reflect in writing on what you have read.

• Visualize.

• Use print conventions.

• Retell what you’ve read.

• Reread.

• Notice patterns in text structure.

• Adjust your reading rate: slow down or speed up.

Making connections helps readers! Remember the following techniques to

make connections: • Relate to characters.

• Visualize.

• Avoid boredom, if you start to get bored…take a short break.

• Pay attention, take your reading

seriously.

• Listen to others’ ideas about the

reading.

• Read actively.

• Remember what they read. • Ask questions.

Voices: What you “hear” when

you are reading • Reciting Voice

The voice a reader hears when he is only reciting the

words and not drawing meaning from the text.

• Conversation Voice

The voice that has a conversation with the text. It

represents the reader’s thinking as he/she talks back

to the text in an interactive way. It can take two

forms:

o Interacting Voice

This voice encourages the reader to infer, make

connections, ask questions, and synthesize

information.

o Distracting Voice

This voice pulls the reader away from the text.

Text-to-Reader Connections:

How to relate to your reading • Text to self: Connections between the text and

the reader’s experiences and memories. The more

experiences and memories a reader has about a

topic, the easier the material is to read.

• Text to world: Connections the reader makes

between the text and what he knows about the

world (facts and information).

• Text to text: Connections the reader makes

between two or more types of texts. The reader

may make connections relative to plot, content,

structure, or style.

Questioning/I Wonder…

Questions can be more powerful than

answers. Good readers ask questions

throughout the reading process: before,

during, and after reading. Readers who ask

questions when they read assume

responsibility for their learning and improve

their comprehension in four ways:

• By interacting with text.

• By motivating themselves to read.

• By clarifying information in the text.

• By inferring beyond the literal meaning.

Correcting Confusion

Comprehension Technique:

• Sticky Notes

Place sticky notes next to passages

that cause confusion so that you can

return to them.

• Highlighters

Use highlighters to mark places you

understand (pink) and places that are

confusing (yellow).

Understanding Purpose A reader’s purpose affects everything about reading. It

determines what’s important in the text, what is

remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader

uses to enhance meaning.

Comprehension Technique:

• Read the article and circle what you think is important.

• Read the piece again, and this time use a pink highlighter

to mark places in the text that a _____ would find important.

• Read the piece again, and this time use a yellow

highlighter to mark places in the text that a _____ would find

important.

• What did you notice about the three times you

highlighted. The first time was probably the hardest because

you had no purpose.

Discovering

Meaning/Vocabulary

• Look it up!! Do not be afraid to use a

dictionary. (Free dictionary apps for

your smart phone are even available!)

• Look at the structure of the word. Is

there a familiar prefix, root, or suffix?

• Use the glossary.

• Read the words around the unknown

word. Can another word be substituted?

Thinking Aloud Good readers engage in mental processes before, during,

and after they read in order to comprehend text. They

stop often to think out loud and describe what is going on

in their minds as they read.

Comprehension Technique:

• Select a short piece of text.

• Foresee difficulty.

• Read the text out loud and stop often to share your

thinking.

• Point out the words in the text that trigger your thinking.

o I am reminded of _____

o I wonder _________

o I am confused _____________

o I notice that this piece is organize like this _________.

Marking Text Marking text helps readers pay attention and

remember what they read. Comprehension Technique:

• Assign codes to the types of thinking in which you

engage. As you read, mark these codes next to the

passages in the text that trigger these kinds of thinking and explain the connection.

o C = connection reader makes to own life and

text

o ? = questions reader has about text o I = inference or conclusion reader draws from text

• Read the text.

• Use sticky notes to attach to appropriate spots.

• Use highlighters. Use yellow to highlight portion not understood. Write a fix-up strategy next to it.

Double-entry Diaries (DED)

DEDs are similar to taking notes. Comprehension Techniques:

• Divide page in half with questions and main ideas on

the left and specific information on the right.

• Divide page in half with direct quote from text and page number on the left and thinking options on the

right (reader’s reactions).

• Divide page in half with facts or details on the left

and author’s message on the right. • Divide page in half with confusing part in text on the

left and reader’s attempt to get unstuck on the right.

• Divide page in half with new/confusing vocabulary

on the left and reader’s knowledge on the right.

Comprehension Constructors This requires readers to use two or more thinking

strategies.

Comprehension Technique: • Call up any background knowledge you have about

topic in the text.

• Read the text. • As you read the piece, you should have a number of

questions. Jot them down (at least 3) in the margins

where they occur to you.

• At the end of the piece, write a response. It should be a paragraph of at least four sentences.

• Look back at the questions you asked. Write the three

best questions below and then decide where the

answers to the questions can be found: in the text, in your head, in another source.

Sources:

“Study Skills Activities: Reading as a Study Skill.” Montana State Literacy Resources: A Service of the National Institute of Literacy. http://www.nwlincs.org/mtlincs/pilotproject/studyskills/studyskillsindex.htm

“Academic Support Guides: Reading Comprehension.” Cuesta College. http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as/300INDEX.HTM