Reprinted from Jim Burke’s web page
Janet Allen (1995) identifies twelve strategies students should know how and when to use when reading:
- Look at the word in relation to the sentence.
- Look at the word up in the dictionary and see if any meanings fit the sentence.
- Ask the teacher [or someone else who might know].
- Sound it out.
- Read the sentence again.
- Look at the beginning of the sentence again.
- Look for other key words in the sentence that might tell you the meaning.
- Think what makes sense.
- Ask a friend to read the sentence.
- Read around the word and then go back again.
- Look at the picture if there is one.
- Skip it if you don't need to know it.
Allen warns against the effect of spending too much time preparing them to read a text, arguing that too many vocabulary words and prior knowledge will intimidate the readers and undermine their interest in the reading selection.
- Use a Linear Array to help students develop a better sense of the continuum of meaning (e.g., ranging from freedom on one end of the continuum to slavery on the other end, with the range of words---e.g., servitude in between)
- Use semantic mapping to help students generate a range of associations from a word or its root (e.g., auto).
- Substitute the word with others to gain a sense of why it is the right word and to see how changing it can alter the meaning (e.g., replace freedom with independence).
- Write up the possible substitutes on the board and discuss their different meanings. Such discussions develop their language sense---i.e., which words to use when, why, and how.
- Teach students to cluster words into smaller phrases to help them orient themselves in longer sentences (see Reminder 75). Example: In the beginning/when I first moved to San Francisco/I found it disorienting, /because I was used to living in a smaller town/where everyone know everyone else.
- Teach them to use the book's available supports for language (e.g., table of contents, glossary, index, sidebars, pullout quotes, and graphic illustrations).
- Compare this word to others that come to mind and see if these familiar words help you.
- Read the troublesome passage out loud so you can process it by a different instrument (your ears instead of your eyes).
- Summarize the word or passage in your own words, checking to see if this makes sense in the larger context of the text.
- Expand the word's meaning by looking also at synonyms and antonyms to better understand the scope of the word's meaning (by contrast).
- Discuss how the author is using the word (connotative or figurative meaning) compared to its denotative or literal meaning.
- Teach them to assess both the word and the source of their trouble with it: Is it because it is new or used in an unfamiliar way?
- Help them to see the range of uses: e.g., can the word be understood in various contexts as a noun, a verb, or even an adjective (e.g., school, play, class)?
- Have students brainstorm words appropriate to a specific category (e.g., the category for a science class could be "Speed") prior to reading about it to activate their knowledge and orient themselves to the subject they will study.
