What Are the Seven Strategies of Reading?

Activating, inferring, monitoring-clarifying, asking, searching-selecting, summarising, and visualising-organising are seven cognitive techniques of effective readers that teachers can offer to their pupils to boost their reading comprehension.

Empower your child's future with a rigorous and supportive grammar school education. Read more to learn about our program and schedule a tour today.

Ways to Improve Your Reading Skills

Monitoring Comprehension

Readers who can accurately gauge their comprehension will recognise when they have grasped a passage and when they have not. In addition, they have methods to "repair" gaps in their comprehension as they appear. Studies have shown that kids can better check their knowledge through education as early as elementary school.

Instructing students to keep tabs on their comprehension allows them to:

• First, observe what it is that they can grasp.
• Then, find out where they need clarification.
• Then, you must figure out how to use the right tools to fix that confusion.

Metacognition

"Thinking about thinking" is one definition of metacognition. Proficient readers use metacognitive methods to reflect on and direct their reading. They might set reading goals and summarise the content before diving in. They might "correct" any comprehension issues by slowing down or speeding up their reading, depending on how challenging the content is. They read something and then test their comprehension.

The following are some methods that students can use to check their comprehension:

• Figuring out the source of the problem

“I got stuck on the second paragraph on page 76.”

• Determine the source of the problem.

“The author's statement that "Arriving in America was a milestone in my grandmother's life" seems confusing to me.”

• Restate the sentence or passage in their terms.

"Oh, I see what you mean; the author is saying that her grandmother's immigration to the United States was a major turning point in her life."

• Read the material over again.

"The author mentioned Mr McBride in Chapter 2, but I don't recall that conversation. If I go back and reread that section, I'll understand why he's acting the way he is right now.

• Keep reading to see if anything might help you with that problem.

"The text states that groundwater can create a wetland or a stream. Humans can pump underground water to the surface. I don't get how people can do that. The name of the following chapter is "Wells," by the way. I will read this to see if it explains their methodology."

Graphic and Semantic Organisers

Graphic organisers are visual aids that show the connections between ideas and the text or pictures they are based on. There are several names for graphic organisers.

Visual organisers, mind maps, concept maps, or whatever you want to name them, are excellent tools for encouraging critical analysis of the interconnections between students' many areas of interest. For example, students might use graphic organisers to comprehend better reading materials such as textbooks and picture books.

Tools like these graphic organisers can:

• As they read, remind students of the fundamental differences between fictional and factual texts.
• Give students how they can investigate and demonstrate connections within a text.
• Facilitate students' ability to compose coherent summaries of assigned readings

Some common graphic organisers are as follows:

• Venn-Diagrams

It's a tool for contrasting and comparing data from multiple sources. For example, consider contrasting two Dr Seuss novels.

• Storyboard/Chain of Events

It's a method for arranging the chronological progression of events in a piece of writing. An illustration of this would be a set of instructions for performing routine tasks like cleaning one's teeth.

• Story Map

They served as a blueprint for the plot. The two most common types are fictional and nonfictional narratives. Unlike in a work of fiction, where the protagonist, antagonist, setting, events, problem, and resolution must all be defined, the core idea and supporting information must be specified in a nonfiction work.

• Cause/Effect

Used to show the reader the connection between causes and effects in a text. Getting a severe sunburn is one possible consequence of overexposure to the sun.

Answering Questions

Effective questions can do the following:

• First, motivate your kids to read by providing them with a clear objective.
• Pay close attention to the content you intend to teach your students.
• Assist pupils in engaging in critical thought when reading
• It is important to remind pupils to check their comprehension.
• Assist students in reflecting on their learning and drawing connections between new and previous knowledge.

Students are encouraged to improve their question-response skills by using The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) technique. Students are asked to indicate whether they relied on textually explicit (spoken explicitly in the text) or textually implicit (implied from context) information or their prior knowledge when responding to questions regarding the text.

In general, there are four categories of enquiry:

• “Right There”

Text-based questions require students to locate the correct answer within the given text, which may be a single word or a single sentence.

Example: Who is Frog’s friend? Answer: Toad

• “Think and Search”

Questions that require you to recall information from the text. Since there is often more than one possible location for an answer, it is up to the student to "think" and "search" for it.

Example: Why was the Frog sad? Answer: His friend was leaving.

• “Author and You”

Many questions test students' ability to integrate what they know with what they've studied in the book. To answer a question about the text, students must first read it carefully and consider how it relates to their own experiences.

Example: Your thoughts on how Frog felt upon meeting Toad? If I had to guess, I'd say Frog was ecstatic to see Toad again after such a long period. Seeing my distant pal always brightens my mood.

• “On Your Own”

Students respond to essay prompts by drawing on their own experiences and expertise. If asked a question like this, they will need more than just reading the text.

Example: When your best friend leaves town, how do you feel? It would break my heart if my best friend went away because I would miss her so much.

Generating Questions

Students' comprehension of what they're reading and their ability to answer questions about it are shown through question generation. In this lesson, students practise asking themselves questions that lead them to draw connections between seemingly unrelated parts of the text. The key idea question is one strategy that can help students focus on what is most crucial in a given book.

Recognising Story Structure

Students are taught to recognise the many types of material through teaching story structure (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Story maps are a common tool for helping students recognise narrative patterns. Students learn better when they are taught how to analyse story structure.

Summarising

Students learning to summarise must be able to identify the most crucial points in a text and rewrite them using their own words.

• Identify or generate main ideas.
• Connect the main or central ideas
• Eliminate unnecessary information
• Remember what they read

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text

Stories, whether based on reality or made up, are what narrative texts are all about. Students can learn from the narrative text in a variety of ways.

Story Maps

Having students draw a diagram of the story's grammar might help teachers ensure their pupils understand the conventions the writer has chosen to employ. Some examples of story grammar are:

Setting

Where and when the action occurs (which can change throughout the story).

Characters

The fictional beings, including the story's protagonist (the primary character), whose goals and actions set the plot in motion.

Plot

The plot usually consists of challenges the main character faces and overcome at the story's climax.

Theme

After finishing the novel, the author wants the audience to remember the key takeaway or central message. It may be stated outright, as in Aesop's Fables, or the reader could deduce it (more common).

Retelling

Having students write their versions of stories helps them focus on the key points they've learned. Teachers should prompt students to think critically about the tale and not retell it.

Prediction

Teachers can have students make guesses about a story using the title and any other information they have access to, such as drawings. After making their predictions, teachers can have students uncover textual evidence for or against them.

Answering Comprehension Questions

It is important to ask students various questions, so they are forced to think critically and use various strategies to obtain the answers, such as looking for direct evidence in the text or making inferences based on what they already know.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text

Expository writing lays out the facts and concepts to teach, convince, or clarify.

The Structure of Expository Text

Headings and subheadings give the reader a good idea of where they are in an expository piece of writing and how the content is organised. Most of the time, the first sentence in a paragraph will also serve as the paragraph's topic sentence, outlining the paragraph's theme in a single sentence.

Many expository pieces are organised according to one of five standard text structures.

• Time order (sequence of events, actions, or steps)
• Cause and effect
• Compare and contrast
• Problem and solution
• Description

By learning these frameworks, students can better understand the interconnections between different concepts and the author's intended meaning.

Conceptual Backbone/Overview

A summary is a concise statement of the text's central argument and the most important supporting details. Students must read the material thoroughly to write a summary that does more than rehash the text.

K-W-L

The K-W-L model consists of the following three stages (Ogle, 1986):

What I Know: Have students discuss their prior knowledge of the issue as a class before assigning the reading. Students should record this information in their K-W-L forms' "K" section.

What I Want to Know: Ask students to fill out the "W" column of their K-W-L forms with their "What I Want to Know" questions about the book. It's understandable if pupils question the integrity of the "facts" provided in the "K" column.

What I Learned: As students read the book, they should keep track of what they discover by looking for answers to the questions in the "W" column and recording them in the "L" column.

Following everyone's completion of the reading, the instructor facilitates a group discussion on the text's accompanying questions and answers.

The Importance of Quality Reading Instruction

Being an efficient reader calls for expertise in decoding, textual application, and textual analysis. While reading, writing, and comprehension are all important, the ultimate goal of literate behaviour is to make sense of the world through the texts we encounter. Teaching students to make meaning while reading should be a top priority. Literal, inferential, and evaluative understanding, as well as students' interest in, engagement with, and pleasure with books and other materials, should all be taught clearly by all teachers.

An Efficient Reading Lesson:

• Includes a variety of instructional strategies that meet students where they are in terms of reading comprehension, including but not limited to model reading (which may or may not include thinking aloud), shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.
• Incorporates these strategies into the classroom to boost students' comprehension
• Enables students to spend more time reading and contemplating texts through activities like literature circles and reciprocal Teaching or by offering suggestions to encourage lengthy discussions of readings.
• Includes learning about language and all textual codes, such as visual literacy and phonics, and being taught how to read and write.
• Uses a range of genres and modes of texts
• Features models of rich, authentic texts
• The language of instruction is English, and it's used for all subject areas
• Provides for a lot of time spent learning
• Allows for a substantial time in the classroom
• Entails individualised, small-group, and large-group lessons as well.

Effective Reading and the Curriculum

All subjects in primary school benefit greatly from students' proficiency in reading and watching media in English. Therefore, it's not enough for students to master basic literacy skills like phonemic awareness or alphabet knowledge; they also need to be able to apply that information across a wide variety of texts and contexts in their chosen curriculum or field of study (Freebody, Barton & Chan, 2014). According to Marie Clay's definition of reading as "a message-getting, problem-solving activity which improves in power and flexibility the more it is practised," reading time should be integrated into school schedules at all year levels.

Time-Saving Reading Strategies

Time-efficient and comprehensive reading is possible thanks to the reading tactics employed by active readers. But, of course, which reading method (or strategies) you employ depends on why you're reading.

Previewing the Text to Get an Overview

So, what is it? If you preview a piece of writing, you can get a sense of its contents without reading it.

The context in which it should be used: to determine whether a book or magazine is appropriate for your needs; to familiarise yourself with the article's overall structure; to speedily find the information you seek; to determine which parts of the text you need to read and which parts you may skip.

To get a sneak peek, check out the following:

• Information about the book's title and author
• The gist (if there is one)
• Then, skim the text for the most important information (headings, summaries, highlighted passages, etc.) that "pop out" at you.
• Check the captions of any pictures, graphs, tables, or diagrams, as they often summarise the topic of long passages of text.
• The opening statement of each paragraph

Skimming

Exactly what is it? For the sake of time, you can skim huge text sections by swiftly scanning them. The paragraph text is involved in skimming, which distinguishes it from previewing. Skimming is a great way to get an overview of a topic without delving too deeply into it. It works quite quickly. Reading a single chapter takes a few minutes.

You can skim through a huge document and find the parts you need. It is especially helpful when there are few headings or images to help you get a feel for the text's overall structure. Skimming supplements a summary with more details.

Hints for Quick Reading:

• Pay attention to any text or images that stand out.
• Then, start at the beginning and skim the whole thing.
• Only go through the whole thing line by line. It would be best to skim each paragraph, taking in the first and last sentences.
• It would be best to get an overview and skim the subject before fully reading it.

Scanning

So, what is it? Scanning rapidly moves your eyes (like radar) over a large section of text in search of specific details.

Use it when you need to find specific information in a huge body of text.

For a quick read:

• When you've got a general feel for the material through skimming, you can pinpoint the specific section(s) you should read in further detail.
• Start by letting your eyes (or finger) move swiftly across a page of text.
• Put down the book as soon as you see a key term or word.
• When you encounter anything important, you pause and give that portion your full attention.
• Scanning and skimming are useful time-saving tools, but they cannot replace careful reading.

Intensive Reading

So, what is it? What is meant by "intensive reading" is a careful, deliberate "study reading" of the crucial passages.

The context in which it should be used: After a quick preview and some skimming and scanning to determine what parts of the article are most relevant to your research, you can settle for a more thorough reading.

Effective strategies for prolonged reading:

• It would help if you got back to the basics. Be sure to highlight any new vocabulary, but continue to do so.
• If the text is straightforward, you can skip the "how to take notes from readings" section and underline, highlight, or jot down a few quick thoughts.
• Before taking notes, you should read the text at least once (more if it's particularly challenging).
• Focus on the central points. Paragraphs should have a central idea, typically stated in the topic sentence (the first sentence) or the concluding sentence.
• After reviewing the passage repeatedly, look up the unknown words in a general or specialised dictionary. Only spend time figuring out what a word or passage means if you still need help understanding it. You'll find it easier to understand if you read it some more. If you still need help, it is time to talk to your instructor.
• Write down the bibliographic information, and be sure to record page numbers (more about this in the section on making notes from readings) (more about this in the section on making notes from readings).

Remember, when approaching reading, you need to make intelligent decisions about what you choose to read, be flexible in how you read, and think about what you are trying to achieve in each reading task.

English is a difficult language to master. Anyone who has worked with struggling readers or ESL students to explain the grammatical rules of the English language will not be surprised by this claim. But unfortunately, many adults also need help comprehending and articulating English, and some resort to telling pupils that memorisation is the only way to retain all those obscure terms.

Reading is easier for many pupils, even with clarity about how to begin. However, many students need help with reading, and many more will only fall behind their peers if they are taught the skills they need to read at their grade level.