What makes a good reader?How do you know you are one?

7 Effective Reading Strategies

Good Readers…

use existing knowledge to make sense of new information.

ask questions before, during, and after reading. draw inferences from the text. monitor comprehension. use “fix-up” strategies when meaning breaks

down. determine what is important. synthesize information to create new meaning.

Use existing knowledge to make sense of new information

Relate what you know about a topic to what you read about the same topic. Have you watched a television show or seen

a movie about the topic? Recall specific details from the show or movie to understand the topic.

Have you talked about this same topic in another class or with someone else? Use that information to fill in the gaps about the text you are reading.

Ask questions before, during, and after reading

BEFORE ASK predicting questions.WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY?

DURING ASK about author’s purpose, main idea, organization, clarity, and supporting details.

AFTER ASK questions to draw conclusions, reflect, explain, retell, or summarize the text.

BEFOREexamples

DURING examples

AFTERexamples

Predict using Who, What, Where, When, Why and How to start questions.

 Do I know the meaning of this

word?   

How does this sentence fit with the others?

 What are the major ideas?

 What are the supporting

details? How is the information

organized? What is the author’s purpose? 

Based on what you know, how would you explain the purpose of this text?

 What conclusions can be

made about the text? How has my thinking

changed after reading this text?

  

Draw inferences

To INFER… You use your personal knowledge plus the

information you read to bring out new information about what you read.

You are able to understand things about the text that are not directly stated in the reading because you are making sense out of the information.

You are able to use the cause and effect relationship pattern as you read.

 

To INFER…1. Ask yourself a question about the text.2. Look for important clues the author

provides in the text.3. Use your background knowledge to think

about the clues given in the text.4. Answer your question by putting together

the text clues and your background knowledge.

Monitor Comprehension

Recognize AMBIGUOUS words—words that can have more than one meaning in a sentence. Know the correct meaning of the word so that you can interpret the sentence.

Locate misplaced sentences and reorganize them so that the text flows more logically.

Identify information that contradicts prior knowledge and decide whether the prior knowledge is accurate.

Check for sentences in the text that contradict later sentences. Use clues from the paragraph to decide which sentence is correct.

Determine irrelevant or unrelated information.

Use “fix-up” strategies when meaning breaks down

Make a connection between the text and Your life. Another text. Your knowledge of the world.

Adjust your reading rate. Make a prediction. Notice patterns in text structure. Re-read a word, phrase or chunk of text. Retell what you’ve read in sequential order.

Stop and think about what you’ve already read. Visualize the text. Reflect in writing on what you have read. Use print conventions. Ask yourself a question and try to answer it. Skip over text and continue reading to see if the meaning becomes

clear. Seek an expert source for clarification.

Determine what is important

Skim the text to determine the main ideas and key concepts or phrases connected to that main idea.

Establish why the author wrote the text and whether the purpose was accomplished.

Go directly to the text that supports your opinion or conclusion.

Use graphic organizers to follow text structure, to identify important ideas, and to summarize text.

Synthesize information to create new thinking

Shift perspective Take the role of __________________ Play “devil’s advocate” Argue a point Invent something new Propose an alternative Conduct research Revise your own thinking based on feedback Consider new information

Tovani, Cris. I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2000.

 

Works Cited