Reading strategies

Comprehension is the ability of readers to make meaning from texts. This is through the active process of monitoring comprehension and applying appropriate comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading.

So, reading is a highly strategic process during which readers are constantly constructing meaning using a variety of strategies, such as activating background knowledge, monitoring and clarifying, making predictions, drawing inferences, asking questions, and summarizing.

These reading strategies are deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand words, and construct the meaning of the text (Afflerbach, Pearson,& Paris,2008,p.368).

So, reading strategies are intentional plans to solve problems associated with reading.

But, what is the difference between reading strategies and reading skills?

Reading strategies vs reading skills

Strategies require more awareness and thinking to achieve the intended objective. When it comes to reading, readers have to be strategic.

What does this mean?

Strategic readers are flexible, adapting their actions as they read. So, they are problem solvers because they detect problems, are aware when their goals are not accomplished, and generate alternative actions to reach them.

If, for example, they’re reading fiction, they create mental pictures of settings and characters. If they find the text difficult, they may slow their reading rate, reread, or ask for help with new words.

So, using reading strategies requires metacognition: thinking about what should be done and how to achieve a reading goal.

Whereas, reading skills, once they are learned (through practice) are applied automatically rather than deliberately. Decoding is a reading skill that when it becomes automatic results in fluent reading. Readers read most words without ever thinking about the sounds and spellings.

Similarly, fluency is a reading skill that develops over time, making reading faster, more efficient, and requiring less thinking and guidance.

So, think of reading skills as abilities that develop over time through practice. They are automatically used. Whereas reading strategies are systematic plans or tools used to achieve certain goals.

The terms skill and strategy must be used to distinguish automatic processes from deliberately controlled processes. Yet, we need to understand how such conceptualization should be translated into our instructional practices.

Making our students skillful readers is necessary because skill affords high levels of performance with little effort.

Still, this is not sufficient!

Our role as teachers is also to support them to deal with the difficulties they encounter when reading does not go smoothly. If a text, for example, includes many difficult words, convoluted syntax, or unfamiliar topics decoding and comprehension may not work.

To this end, it is important to promote both skilled and strategic reading because our students need to know how to read strategically to understand texts and feel confident that they can monitor and improve their reading.

Another reason for the strategy–skill connection:

Developing our students’ ability or skill to read proficiently is a process that requires time and effort from both teachers and students.

Beginning readers may need to learn specific strategies to decode words and comprehend text. Learning about those reading strategies, students can use such knowledge to become fluent and skilled,

So, teaching reading strategies is an effective tool not only to help our students learn to be metacognitive, and have control over the reading process but also to become more skilled.

Reading comprehension strategies

Making sense of the text is the primary goal of any reading task. But, this may not happen when comprehension breakdown occurs.

Therefore, teaching reading comprehension strategies is necessary to support our students to overcome any temporary roadblock they might encounter in reading.

Engaging students with the text is key to supporting them to get motivated to work out its meaning.

So, to help you out with such a process, here are 8 engaging reading comprehension strategies that you can use in your class.

1# Graphic organizers: Frayer Model

Graphic organizers are visual tools that display the relationships between ideas. These tools provide the reader with a structure for brainstorming, recording bits of information, making predictions, and arranging thoughts in a way that makes sense.

Research has shown that using graphic organizers helped activate the reader’s prior knowledge and encouraged encoding strategies which resulted in increased retention.

There are numerous types of graphic organizers you can use to engage your students in reading and develop a deeper understanding: Venn diagram, Matrix, Flow chart, Story map, etc.

In this respect, you can use the Frayer Model to teach vocabulary more effectively, thereby making texts much easier to decode for students. How?

This graphic organizer can help students gain a deep understanding of a vocabulary concept. Students put the new term at the centre of the model and then put the definition in one corner, facts about the term or concept in the next corner, and examples and non-examples in the two remaining corners.

For more ideas on how to use this model check out this post here. 

2# Text coding

This can help students monitor comprehension during the reading process. As students read, they use a simple coding system to record what they are thinking. Here are some codes to use :

V= Visualize or make a picture in my head.
Q= Question; something I don’t understand.
+= This information is new to me.
C=  I can connect this information to another text, my life, or something else I read.
W= I don’t know what this word means.
!=  This information is new to me.

3# Checklist

This is another strategy to use during reading. It requires that students actively read a text to confirm true or false statements. So, it can help them constantly monitor a text for evidence.

In this strategy, you prepare a list of true-or-false statements on a reading. As your students read the passage, they mark the statements as true or false. At the end of the reading, they go back to the false statements and correct them (Devries,2004).

4# Bookmarks

Bookmarks are another tool to support students’ strategic thinking. They provide students with a visual reminder of the strategies needed for active comprehension during the reading process.

A bookmark is simply a slip of paper that a student can keep in a book during reading. On the paper are clues to support him as he reads.

These can be used as a tracking aid, page marker, or strategy reminder. You can use it as a piece of data to document your student’s progress and learning. Here is an example from Jodi Durgin blog.

There are many templates for creating bookmarks. You can get free templates using Canva. TemplateLAB also offers 50 Free Printable Bookmark Templates. Click here to learn more.

5# Detecting patterns of organization

As students read, provide them with the following questions to determine the structure of the text. Introduce different texts so that students become proficient in using the questions to determine the text’s structure.

• Cause and effect: How did cause lead to effect? What are people’s reactions?
• Chronology: What is the time span from the first event to the last? How does the author transition to each event? What do all the events explain?
• Compare and contrast: What’s being compared? What are the similarities and differences? What are the most significant ones?
• Problem and solution: What has caused the problem? Is there more than one solution? Has the problem been solved, or will it continue into the future? (Dixon et al.,2012).

6# Questioning the author

This reading comprehension strategy encourages students to be active during reading. This is by questioning the author of the text. Beck et al, (1997) suggested these specific steps you can use for this purpose :

1. Select a passage.
2. Decide appropriate stopping points that will support students in developing a deeper understanding of the passage.
3. Create questions to encourage critical thinking for each stopping point, such as the following :
   a) What’s the author trying to say?
   b) Why do you think the author used the following phrase?
   c) Does this make sense to you?
   d) Why do you think the author chose to use this phrase or wording in this specific spot?
   e) How has the author let you know that something has changed?

7# 3-2-1 Strategy

This strategy helps students discover the purpose of a text. Students are asked to identify three discoveries they made during reading, two interesting ideas, and one question they still have after reading (Zygouris, et al.,2004).

8# Website Walk

In this strategy, you identify a website that features videos, articles, charts, diagrams, and/ or maps focused on one topic. Have your students in small groups or individually, find an example of each feature listed earlier and then share how that feature enables them to better understand the text at hand (Dixon et al, 2012).

These are the 8 Engaging Reading Comprehension Strategies that can make your students effective readers. Use them with any type of text to create more engaging reading tasks. I hope this will help. All the best!

References

Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P.D., & Paris, S.G.(2008). Clarifying differences between reading skills and reading strategies. The Reading Teacher,61 (5), 364-373.

Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., Hamilton, RL.,& Kucan, L.(1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. Newark DE: International Reading Association.
Devries, B.(2004). Reading assessment and intervention for the classroom teacher. Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway.
Dixon,B.,Mainville,S.,Farquer,T.&Gray,T.(2012). Common Core teaching and learning strategies: English and language arts, reading informational text, Grades K-5. Springfield: Illinois State Board of Education.
Zygouris-Coe,V.,Wiggins,M.B., & Smith,L.H.(2004). Engaging students with text: The 3-2-1 strategy. The Reading Teacher,58(4),381-384.