Reading Strategies
Have you ever read a passage of text and then realized that while you read every word, you can’t remember a thing? Maybe you misread a word only to find out that the sentence you just read didn’t make any sense. Or perhaps you came across a word that you had never heard of before. Chances are you used a fix-up strategy to help you make sense of what you read. And that’s just what fix-up strategies are. They are reading comprehension strategies that help you “fix up” your understanding (or misunderstandings) as you read. Researchers have found that proficient readers use these specific strategies to help them comprehend text.
- Monitoring for meaning - Recognizing when you understand the text and when you do not.
- Thoughts to monitor meaning:
- I understand . . .
- I do not understand . . .
- This is easy to read because . . .
- This is difficult to read because . . .
- Using and creating schema - Making connections between what you know and what you are reading. Connections at the fourth grade level need to be meaningful and extend the understanding of the text. After the connection is determined, it should conclude with the sentence, "...and that helped me to understand..."
- Types of Connections:
- Text to Self
- Text to Text
- Text to World
- Asking questions - Composing questions before, during, and after you read.
- Types of Questions:
- I wonder . . .
- Who . . .
- What . . .
- Where . . .
- When . . .
- Why . . .
- How . . .
- Determining importance - Concluding what is the most important information to remember from what you are reading.
- Thoughts to determine importance:
- "The text was mostly about . . ."
- "The author is trying to tell me . . ."
- "I learned . . ."
- "The important details are . . ."
- Inferring - Using background knowledge and details from what you are reading to make predictions, conclusions, and interpretations.
- Thoughts to make inferences:
- Based on what I know I predict . . . conclude . . . infer . . .
- Based on what I read I predict . . . conclude . . . infer . . .
- I predict . . . conclude . . . infer . . . because (clues from the text)
- Using sensory and emotional images - Visualizing the text in your mind; create a picture in your mind from key, descriptive words and phrases.
- Synthesizing - You combine what you know with new information. ("Aha" moment) Thoughts that lead to synthesizing:
- My connection made me realize . . .
- My question made me realize . . .
- My prediction made me realize . . .
- My conclusion made me realize . . .
- My inference made me realize . . .
- That information from the text made me realize . . .