"Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything."

-Tomie dePaola

Explicitly teaching strategies is critical for helping students understand the text that they are reading. Strong readers are able to mentally tie parts of texts together and construct mental models of the text. These students are also able to use strategies spontaneously and more effectively than weaker readers. Teaching students to use comprehension strategies encourages them to think about and share the text with others. When teachers explicitly teach comprehension strategies, they help readers to balance the multifaceted tasks involved in reading. We've identified four strategies below.

NOTE: In this course, there are several times that we use "tabs" to add content. When you see these "tabs" within the course, you are meant to explore each "tab" before moving forward. For example, below you will click on Activating Prior Knowledge, Questioning, Summarizing, and Visualizing. We just want to make sure that you receive all of the content.

Activating Prior Knowledge
Questioning
Summarizing
Visualizing

Activating Prior Knowledge

What is it?

Activating prior knowledge makes connections between previous learning and new instruction.

Why is it important?

Activating prior knowledge while reading can improve comprehension. Building background knowledge enables readers to select the correct word meaning to increase comprehension.

What does it look like?

The skill of activating prior knowledge and building background knowledge can be learned in many ways. Create and implement activities that make connections between previously learned concepts and new ones.

Additional Resources

Questioning

What is it?

At its heart, questioning is about equity in learning. Questioning engages all students in making meaning and extending understanding. It helps the reader to clarify and comprehend what they are reading. Questioning also gives students a purpose for reading. Purposeful reading increases reading comprehension because the student is making a personal connection with the text. Questioning facilitates this personal connection.

Why is it important?

The process of questioning provides information to teachers about where their students are in their progress toward the attainment of identified learning targets. Students who can ask and answer key questions are able to discuss the text effectively, relate the text to their lives and the world, and clarify and understand the information presented in the text. By modeling good questioning and encouraging students to ask questions of themselves, teachers can help students learn independently and improve their learning.

What does it look like?

Follow these simple steps to develop quality questioning:

Focus the question on the targeted standard.
Incorporate related academic vocabulary.
Use a variety of questioning strategies.

Additional Resources

Building Reading Comprehension through Questioning Techniques
Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)

Summarizing

What is it?

Summarizing is reading a text, deciding on the important ideas in the text, and putting them together in one’s own words.

Why is it important?

Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in every content area. It can also make readers more aware of text organization, what is essential in a text and how ideas are related. It teaches students to take of text and reduce it to the main points for a understanding. Summarizing skills are applicable in every content area.

What does it look like?

Follow these simple steps to model and practice summarizing:

Read the text.
Reread the text, looking for essential information and main ideas.
Record the information in a graphic organizer.
Use the important information to write a brief summary.

Additional Resources

Visualizing

What is it?

Good readers construct mental images as they read a text. By using prior knowledge and background experiences, readers connect the author's writing with a personal picture. Visualizing requires the reader to make mind movies, pictures, and sensory impressions based on what has been read.

Why is it important?

Creating mental images while reading can improve comprehension.

What does it look like?

Follow these few simple steps to provide practice developing students' mental images:

Begin reading.
Pause and discuss the image in your mind.
Continue reading. Pause again and share the new image you created.

Once this is a familiar skill, encourage students to use mental imagery when they are reading by themselves.

Additional Resources

Reflection/Processing Activity

After reviewing the content in each tab above, think about the comprehension strategies shared and explore those listed in the "Additional Resources". Select a strategy you would like to use and consider how you would implement this strategy in a lesson. Talk with a colleague about your plan.

References

Walsh, J. A. & Sattes B. D. (2016). Quality questioning (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Cracchiolo, R. (2007). Successful strategies for reading in the content areas: grades PreK-K, 1-2, 3-5, and secondary. (2nd. ed.). Shell Education.
Reading Rockets. (2023) Launching young readers. WETA. Online. Available. https://www.readingrockets.org.