Comprehension Strategies of Highly Effective Readers

In the early years as homeschool parents, one of the greatest responsibilities we face is teaching our children how to read.  We are as amazed by those children who just mysteriously start reading as we are by those who don’t and require a more systematic method of instruction.  There are many schools of thought and types of curriculums to consider.  But eventually our children do nearly all begin to read.  That is, they begin to decode letters into words and sentences and then entire stories and books.  Yay!  We celebrate their success as they read faster and faster, gaining independence.

From here on out, comprehension becomes the focus of reading growth.  How much of the content that our children read do they fully understand, remember, and apply to their own developing sense of self and the world?  This can be a tricky question to answer.  It is extremely important that we don’t just assume that because our children are reading words and sentences, they are understanding them completely.  Like we have to teach most children strategies for learning to read, we also must teach them strategies for learning to comprehend deeply. 

          Yes, most children able to read, “The dog is black,” can formulate an image or visualize a black dog in their minds.  They understand the words.  But what about a 7^th grader reading a common expression of Winston Churchill’s when he didn’t want to see a visitor, “I have got a black dog on my back today.” Now a reader might need some strategies to understand the meaning beyond the literal.  Literature, even for young children, is full of new vocabulary, literary allusions, symbolism, and metaphor. Readers use specific strategies to interpret complex texts and fortunately, they are not difficult to teach!  We give our children a wonderful gift when we offer them comprehension strategies that they’ll use for the rest of their lives.  

About 10 years into my teaching career, I read a book that changed everything about the way I thought about myself as a reader, and consequently, the way I taught reading to both younger and older students, including, eventually, my own children.  Mosaic of Thought co-authors Elin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman help the adult to think about ourselves as readers, about what it is we DO while we read, and then they show us easy ways to model our thinking while reading aloud with children of all ages.  Listening to their parents and teachers “thinking aloud,” students learn what it is that good readers do while reading.  It’s a lot more than decoding words.

Following on the heels of Mosaic of Thought, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis gave us Strategies That Work, a wonderful collection of research-based strategies that can be taught via “think alouds,” or mini lessons easy to sneak into regular read aloud time with children that make reading comprehension visible. With the end goal of educating students to become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers, I highly recommend taking a look at both of these books that have been inspiring teachers for the past 20 years.  Newer editions include updated thinking about current brain research and teaching in today’s more technological world.

Here is quick summary of 7 of the most commonly revered reading strategies, excerpted from Brenda Power of Choice Literacy

1. Activating background knowledge to make connections between new and known information. In many [cases], this instruction is divided into three categories of connection as defined by Colleen Buddy — text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world (Buddy quoted in Keene and Zimmerman, 2007).

2. Questioning the text. Proficient readers are always asking questions while they read. Sticky notes (post-its) have become ubiquitous in [home] classrooms in part because they are such a useful tool for teaching students to stop, mark text, and note questions as they read.

3. Drawing inferences. Proficient readers use their prior knowledge about a topic and the information they have gleaned in the text thus far to make predictions about what might happen next. When teachers demonstrate or model their reading processes for students through think-alouds, they often stop and predict what will happen next to show how inferring is essential for comprehending text.

4. Determining importance. In the sea of words that is any text, readers must continually sort through and prioritize information. Teachers often assist readers in analyzing everything from text features in nonfiction text like bullets and headings, to verbal cues in novels like strong verbs. Looking for these clues can help readers sift through the relative value of different bits of information in texts.

5. Creating mental images. Readers are constantly creating mind pictures as they read, visualizing action, characters, or themes. Teachers are using picture books with students of all ages, not necessarily because they are easy to read, but because the lush and sophisticated art in these books can be a great bridge for helping students see how words and images connect in meaning-making.

6. Repairing understanding when meaning breaks down. Proficient readers don’t just plow ahead through text when it doesn’t make sense — they stop and use “fix-up” strategies to restore their understanding. One of the most important fix-up tools is rereading, with teachers demonstrating to students a variety of ways to reread text in order to repair meaning.  More Fix-Up Strategies from This Reading Mama.

7. Synthesizing information. Synthesis is the most sophisticated of the comprehension strategies, combining elements of connecting, questioning, and inferring. With this strategy, students move from making meaning of the text, to integrating their new understanding into their lives and world view.

Effective readers at any age use effective strategies to take in text and allow it to help them to grow, to think, and sometimes, to change their minds.  As teachers, we must help young readers to practice these strategies as they are as critical to a strong education as phonics and multiplication tables, if not even more so.

References

Pearson, P. David, L.R. Roehler, J.A. Dole, and G.G. Duffy. 1992.

Power, Brenda, “What Are the Seven Reading Comprehension Stratgies?” choiceliteracy.com/article/what-are-the-seven-reading-comprehension-strategies/  Choice Literacy 2022.

“Developing Expertise in Reading Comprehension.” In S. Jay Samuels and Alan Farstrup, eds. What Research Has to Say About Reading  Instruction , 2nd Edition. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Spence, Becky, “Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies,” from This Reading Mama https://thisreadingmama.com/reading-comprehension-strategies/, 2022.

Zimmerman, Susan and Ellin Keene. 2007. Mosaic of Thought . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.