Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading comprehension strategies enable readers to tackle challenging texts with greater independence and to develop the level of understanding required to score well on the SAT and ACT tests. They require high level thinking while reading, which is only possible when the fundamental reading skills -- decoding, vocabulary, spelling, language syntax -- have been mastered.
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Here is a break down of the processes of proficient readers, that can help struggling readers read with comprehension. There are seven strategy skills:

1. Activating background knowledge to make connections between new and known information. There are three categories: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.


2. Questioning the text. Proficient readers are always asking questions while they read. Sticky notes (post-its) have become ubiquitous in 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 to make predictions about what might happen next. Parents and teachers can demonstrate or model their reading processes for students through think-alouds, where they 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. Readers need to learn to analyze text looking for clues, such as headings in nonfiction text and repeated ideas in novels.


5. Creating mental images. Readers are constantly creating mind pictures as they read, visualizing action, characters, or themes.


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. This includes re-reading text to make sure it was read correctly, and reference to prior text to check for context if that is unclear.


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

Practice Required
Clearly, these reading comprehension strategies are complex skills that need a lot of practice, and during class, the ability to follow teachers using these reading strategies is important.

However, to the extent that the fundamentals of reading are not in place, this practice will have reduced value. These are high level skills that can only fully develop when a reader's mind is totally available for reading comprehension, i.e., it is not distracted by a need to concentrate on decoding, vocabulary or literal comprehension. If this is the case, a student's time is best spent in correcting these fundamentals first.
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