Comprehension Strategies
1. METACOGNITION
Being aware of your thinking.
- When I read this part, I was thinking...
2. DETERMINING IMPORTANCE
Readers need to prioritize as they read. It is related to main idea and identifying themes. It is a critical skill for students as they encounter textbooks and nonfiction.- a. Identifying Themes
- What kind of message is the author sending?
- b. Prioritizing Information
- What are the critical ideas?
- What is just interesting without being important?
3. SCHEMA
When readers fit what they read into what they already know or have experienced, they are using schema. As you read to or with your child, try:- a. Making connections
- How can you connect what you read to your own life? (text to self)
- How can you connect what you read to another book? (text to text)
- How can you connect what you read to events happening in our world? (text to world)
- b. Author Schema
- What do you know about the author that might help you to anticipate what happens in the story? Does the author like surprise endings? Does the author often use the same characters? This kind of understanding helps readers when they are reading books in a series.
- c. Prior Knowledge
- Help your child think about the title and pictures before he/she read and uses what they know to make predictions.
4. QUESTIONING
When readers question the text before, during, and after they read, they attend more closely to the text.- a. BEFORE READING
- What do you think will happen?
- Why do you suppose...
- b. DURING READING
- Why do you suppose...
- What do you think...
- I wonder why?
- How come...
- c. AFTER READING
- What would have happened if...
- I wonder why the author...
- I wonder where we could look to find out more about...
It is important for readers to understand that some of the most interesting questions we have aren't always answered in the story!
5. SENSORY IMAGING
When readers can use their senses to help them imagine what they might smell, hear, see, taste, or feel as they read, they get deeper into the text.
- a. Visualization
- Imagine what it looked like...
- b. Other Sensory Images
- What kinds of things do you imagine hearing? Smelling? Tasting? Feeling?
6. INFERRING
More than simple prediction, inferring happens when readers can take what they know and what is written in the book to "read between the lines." The ability to infer helps the reader get the "why" of the story. We can help our readers to use the inferrence to:
- Think about why a character takes an action
- How a character feels in a certain situation.
- Why an author made certain choices as he or she was writing the book.
7. SYNTHESIZING
When you set out to make Chocolate Chip Cookies and begin to gather up the ingredients, you don't have cookies until the measuring, mixing, and baking is done. You begin with all the needed ingredients and somehow, you sythesize them into those tasty cookies that disappear so fast! When a reader can use all the comprehension tools described above to take a book and truly make it their own through masterful retelling, they are sythesizing!!
