Reading Comprehension Strategies

Determining a purpose for reading

Identify purpose for reading text

Select purpose for reading text

adjust reading strategies and reading
rate to match the purpose for reading

Activating prior knowledge

Bring background knowledge to the reading of a text

Use brainstorming activities to recall what they know

Visualizing

Guide the generation of
images

Use visual arts and drama

Questioning

Ask questions that will help them
focus on the meaning

Understand how questioning helps
them remember information

Ask "thick"questions

Why

What if

Ask "thin" questions

Who

When

Making connections

Extend the meaning in text by connecting it to various elements

the world around them

Other texts

Character

Information

plot

Setting

Topic

Predicting

Integrate cueing systems

Use anticipation guides

Make prediction based on:

topic

familiar features

author

genre

Drawing inferences

Combine what they know with clues
from the text to make deductions

Think beyond the text during teacher
read-alouds as they model how to
draw inferences during reading

Finding important information

Set purposes for reading that will help
them determine what is important

Use print features to locate
important information

Punctuation

Headers

Font changes

Summarizing

Summarize stories through retelling,
dramatizing, or illustrating stories

Use oral and visual summaries,
concept maps, and discussions to
help students summarize texts

Use jot notes to record events in
a few words/sentences

Synthesizing

Synthesize new
information with existing knowledge

Gather meaning from several texts
or genres to create a broader picture
of a topic

Evaluating

Use response journals to reflect on what they have just read

Identify valid sources of information

Website analysis

Magazine critiques

Make judgements before, during, and
after reading

Monitoring comprehension

Use all the cueing systems to
increase understanding

Modelling
using a think-aloud strategy

Self-correct when necessary for
understanding or for accuracy in oral
reading performance

Notice when the students do not understand