Comprehension Strategies Overview

Prior Knowledge  • Brainstorm before reading • Topic, events, genre, ideas • Make connections after reading • ‘how did what you already know help you to understand what you’ve read?’ • ‘what more do you understand now about?’ • Make concluding statements

Skimming • Look at titles, subheadings, illustrations, first and last sentence • Discuss responses • ‘do these parts remind you of things you already know?’ • ‘how do the subheadings help you to predict what will happen?’

Reporting back • Discuss new ideas and learning • Establish prior and new knowledge • Prompt cards ‘this is a little like … that I already knew’

Connecting key ideas • List connections between different texts • Cover points of view, vocabulary etc

Starting from the known • KWL approach • What do you already know? • What do you want to find out? • What have you learnt? • Modify to use for vocab or context etc

Predicting and re-predicting • Key words • Provide one key word from text and ask students to predict what section is about

Read, predict, record • Pause after each section, predict and share giving evidence • ‘this phrase supports my prediction because’ • Identify clues such as punctuation and sentence structure • Develop series of cards to record predictions and evidence

• Stop students at critical points and ask them to share their predictions

• Encourage peer feedback • ‘do you think i could be correct? Why or why not?’

Visualising • Vivid descriptions • Model using texts with strong descriptions • ‘the picture i get is .... because...’

• Ask students to read a section of text and complete a simple sketch of what they have read • This can be a verbal report or diagram

• Use a chart to record visual images and the words that helped form them

• Before reading brainstorm around a central image, idea or concept

• Develop a flow chart that shows a visual image developing

 Inferring Teaching to infer • Model author’s intent by reading aloud example: ‘water dripped off the leaves and landed as puddles on the already sodden ground..’. I can infer that it is raining, using clues and other strategies: 1. Clues from text: water, dripped, landed, puddles, sodden 2. Prior knowledge: that rain forms puddles 3. Visualisation: I can see the rain hitting the leaves, bouncing off and splashing on to the ground • ‘The letter was written on thin, yellowing paper and rustled when she unfolded it.’ 1. I know the letter must be old because the author says the paper is yellowing. 2. I worked this out because i know that some kinds of paper go yellow when they are very old. 3. The author says the paper rustled. That’s something else that tells me it’s probably old. I know that thin paper becomes brittle when it’s old, so it would make a rustling noise when you open it.

• Use charts to identify those messages actually stated in the text (what I know) and those inferred based on clues in the text (what I feel).

Self-questioning  • Bookmarking or charting • Provide starters ‘a question I have is.....’, ‘I am wondering ...’ • Ask literal questions (5W and H is appropriate) to recall facts directly • Inferential questions which require thinking from clues. Take literal information and combine it with other information. • Investigative questions require students to draw conclusions from given clues • Evaluative questions require students to make judgments based on text content, author style and purpose

 Seeking Clarification • Backtrack and jot • Refer back to text and jot down key points

• What part of the text is unclear? • Why am I confused? • What could this mean? • Which is most probable and why? • How can I seek assistance?

• Work with group to develop strategies for getting help

• Independent small group practice

Summarising  • Highlighting • Begin by reading a section of text • Highlight the most important ideas • Return to text and record key words

• Complete table with headings ‘key sentence selected’ and ‘reason’ • Students need time to share their reasoning and decide on the effectiveness of their decisions

 Sequence of main ideas or events • Suitable for texts conveying information in a sequence • Make notes summarising each stage

• Identify supporting evidence to justify their choice of important ideas

• Considering evidence • Powerful with nonfiction texts • Use as a brainstorm activity

• Record the processes they went through to work out the main idea from a text • Complete as 1st step, 2nd step etc till ‘I concluded that the main idea was ...’

Analysing and synthesising  • Why is it ...? • Use with texts which might allow for more than one interpretation • Students complete a table with the headings ‘the author states’, ‘why this could be so’ and ‘questions I have are ...’

• Identifying cause and effect relationships • Look for relationships between events and actions • Use a graphic organiser to record any cause and effect relationships which are noticed

• Students compare 2 or more versions of a text and identify the elements that are the same or different • Make notes of the details they consider important • Analysis – chart information as you read • Synthesis – connect this list of ideas • Ask questions – what did you notice, were there differences, did they matter?

• Identifying assumptions, points of view and bias • Use with persuasive texts, reports, explanations and narratives • Analyse the development and sequence of ideas • Analyse the information and the conclusions • Draw together the results of their analysis • Comparing characters using a graphic organiser

• Using a story map • Show how the elements of a narrative come together to create overall meaning • Use with finding the main idea

• Record an idea they have learnt from their reading and list facts about this idea • Analyse the parts of the text that have the key messages • Explain the key messages • Identify the evidence the author used to convey these messages • Identify evidence to support a point of view • Explain the relationship between 2 pieces of information • Explain how what they have read relates to what they already know • Explain how they can combine their new learning with their prior knowledge

 Evaluating • Draw on prior knowledge to ask and answer relevant questions • Analyse and synthesise ideas • Recognise inconsistencies • Recognise when the author is trying to influence their thinking • Respond to the text in a personal, yet informed way • Make judgements about what an author is saying • Describe and demonstrate to others how they arrived at their opinions

• What do you think? • Select a task: • Express an opinion • Ask an evaluating question • Challenge the text or author • Look for bias • Say how effectively the text was developed in view of the purpose

• Challenge and justify • The inclusion of a particular inclusion • Their own evaluation of the text • A recommendation of the text for other audiences • An opinion on the content of the text • Priorities within the text (most important to least) • The overall effectiveness of the text • Whether the author met the purpose for which the text was written