Strategies to Teach Comprehension
Below are six different strategies that can be used to help students develop reading comprehension skills. These are not the only possible strategies used for comprehension building, but they are all options that are worth trying in your room. Next to each strategy, you will also see a possible activity or worksheet that could be done with that strategy. You can introduce all of them to your students, and teach them how to use them one at a time. Then, once students understand how to use the strategies independently, they will be able to choose the strategies that help them when they are reading. You can then make time each day for students to explain which strategy they are using and why.
Set a Purpose for Reading
Expose children to a variety of genres, and then help them to understand why they're reading a particular piece. It may be to learn new information, to learn new vocabulary, to learn new writing strategies, or simply for enjoyment. Deciding the purpose will determine how the students read the text.
Below the picture on the left are other forms that could be used to help students set a purpose for reading that were included in Comprehension from the Ground Up.
Below the picture on the left are other forms that could be used to help students set a purpose for reading that were included in Comprehension from the Ground Up.
appendix23_imreadingto.pdf | |
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my_purposeful_reading_log.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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Access and Use Prior Knowledge
Prior knowledge should be used before, during and after reading. It includes everything that a student has experienced before picking up the book. This prior knowledge can help students question and comprehend information in comparison to what they already know. It can also help a child decide whether events or actions make sense or if they are actually capable of happening.
Below the picture on the left is another form that can be used to help students access and use prior knowledge.
Below the picture on the left is another form that can be used to help students access and use prior knowledge.
background_knowledge.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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Consider Text Structure
Understanding how a text is structured, or set up, helps a reader to organize and find information. We can help children to understand different structures through thinking aloud while we read, as well as through mini-lessons. Completing a chart or graphic organizer to show how the story is set up can also be a helpful tool.
Below the picture on the left are two forms to help students to consider text structure.
Below the picture on the left are two forms to help students to consider text structure.
before_and_after.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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thinking_about_text_structure.pdf | |
File Size: | 64 kb |
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Ask Questions and Wonder
Children should be active readers. Through asking questions and wondering, students are able to comprehend, enjoy, and remember what they read. We need to model for them how to ask questions that will increase learning. Once students understand how to ask questions that are helpful to reading comprehension, they can also begin to record questions on their own as they read.
Below the picture on the left is a strategy sheet that can be used to help students turn titles from their reading selections into questions. There is also a file to help students make inferences as they come up with questions and use critical thinking skills as they read.
Below the picture on the left is a strategy sheet that can be used to help students turn titles from their reading selections into questions. There is also a file to help students make inferences as they come up with questions and use critical thinking skills as they read.
titles_to_questions.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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making_inferences.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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Visualize to Experience
The pictures that we create in our minds when we read can be very important in helping us to comprehend and learn from a text. If we are reading topics that are less familiar to us, it may be more difficult to create these images, but that just means that we need to work harder to bring life to the words on the pages. Even our youngest students have the ability to draw the images that they see in their heads while they are reading.
The two files below the picture on the left help students to visualize through drawing pictures about what they are visualizing as they read as well as what they learned from their reading.
The two files below the picture on the left help students to visualize through drawing pictures about what they are visualizing as they read as well as what they learned from their reading.
appendix20_getthepicture.pdf | |
File Size: | 56 kb |
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appendix30_sketch.pdf | |
File Size: | 56 kb |
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Summarize to Determine Importance
While we are reading, we need to decide what is important and what is not. We need to teach students how to find the main idea and to focus on the words and messages that are most important in a text. They need to understand the difference between a detail and an important event, so that they know which important events to include in their summaries. As students read more texts and have more practice with summarizing, they will begin to do it automatically.
The first two files below will help students to summarize important events or ideas from both a fiction and a nonfiction text. The last file will help students to summarize what they read in fifteen words or less.
The first two files below will help students to summarize important events or ideas from both a fiction and a nonfiction text. The last file will help students to summarize what they read in fifteen words or less.
appendix22_mainideasnf.pdf | |
File Size: | 123 kb |
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appendix1_mainevents.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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appendix31_gettinggist.pdf | |
File Size: | 57 kb |
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Taberski, S. (2011). Time to read: Getting independent reading right. In Comprehension from the ground up: Simplified, sensible instruction for the K-3 reading workshop (pp. 251-274. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.