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using Comprehension Strategies

As readers use the cueing systems to gather information from text, they also use the following comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading to help them construct meaning. They read for deeper meaning as they make their own interpretations.

Using Prior Knowledge and Experiences

• Readers spontaneously activate relevant prior knowledge before, during, and after reading text.
• Readers recognise when they have inadequate background information and know how to create it- to build schema- to get information they need.

Determining What Is Important in Text

• Readers indentify key ideas or themes as they read.
• Readers utilize text structure and text features to help them distinguish important information from unimportant information.
• Readers distinguish important information in relation to key ideas or themes in text- at the word, sentence, and text level.

Drawing Inferences

• Readers draw conclusions and form unique interpretations from text.
• Readers make predictions about text and then confirm their predictions.
• Readers create interpretations.

Asking Questions

• Readers spontaneously generate questions before, during, and after reading.
• Readers ask questions to clarify meaning, to understand the author, or to locate a specific answer in the text.
• Readers use questions to focus their attention on important components of text.

Synthesizing

• Readers retell or synthesize what they have read to better understand it. They attend to the most important information and to the clarity of the synthesis itself.
• Readers respond to text in a variety of ways.

Using Sensory Images

Readers create sensory images during and after reading. These images may include visual, auditory, and other sensory modes, as well as emotional connections to the text, and are rooted in prior knowledge.

Monitoring Comprehension

Readers monitor their comprehension during reading

• They know when the text they are reading or listening makes sense, when it does not, what does not make sense, and whether the unclear portions are critical to overall understanding of the piece.
• Readers are aware of what they need to comprehend in relation to their purpose for reading (Keene and Zimmerman, 1997)
  

Reference:

Keene, E., and Zimmerman, S. Mosaic of Thought:Teaching
Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann, 1997.

Details the comprehension strategies used by proficient readers and
proposes explicit instruction to teach these strategies.

Article adapted from Rigby Literacy Teacher's Guide (2000)

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