The Great 8: Strategies Used by Effective Readers
What They Are & How to Teach Them

What They Are: Eight effective researched-based, reading comprehension strategies listed below comprise the Jordan School District Comprehension Framework. The goal is that these strategies will be so ingrained as to become habits. But they can only become such if students learn what each of these comprehension strategies are; why each is important; when and how to use them. The following descriptions provide an outline that answers these questions.   

Activate & Build Background Knowledge

  • What: Using relevant, stored knowledge to relate unfamiliar text to the reader’s general knowledge or experiences
  • Why: Background knowledge about text’s topic helps the reader read with more confidence, curiosity and commitment.
  • When: Before and during reading; especially with difficult or unfamiliar text
  • How: Connect the text to personal experiences; ask questions; make predictions.

Predict

  • What: Hypothesizing what the author will discuss next in the text
  • Why: Predicting creates a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove hypotheses; and it promotes attention to text.
  • When: Before and during reading
  • How: Link new knowledge learned from text to background knowledge, noting heading, subheadings and questions embedded in the text; make relevant predictions based upon explicit and implicit text clues; read on to confirm or disprove predictions and then adjust hypotheses

Make Inferences

  • What: Connecting authors’ clues found in a text with relevant background knowledge to create educated assumptions about the intended meaning; sometimes referred to as “reading between the lines”
  • Why: Writers often “tell” the reader more than what they write directly. They share hints or clues to help readers go beyond surface details, and thus arrive at a deeper understanding of the reading.
  • When: During reading
  • How: Attend to what authors explicitly state to find clues or hints and then connect those to background knowledge to discover implied meanings/information. For example, objects, time, locations, feelings/attitudes, actions, causes/effects, problems and solutions are often implied and require the reader to make inferences.

Question

  • What: Posing questions about the text’s words and ideas while reading
  • Why: Asking questions keeps readers thinking about what they are reading and builds curiosity that motivates them to continue reading.
  • When: Before, during and after reading
  • How: Create an inner conversation with self, asking questions about unfamiliar words, results, characters, new information, and concepts, etc. Formulate more questions and seek for answers during reading.

Monitor Understanding

  • What: Being self-aware of one’s thinking processes and having the ability to regulate and control thinking
  • Why: Thinking about one’s thinking allows for active reading and learning.
  • When: Before, during and after reading
  • How: Recognize and identify gaps in understanding; know and apply appropriate "fix-up" strategies.

Visualize

  • What: Using all senses to create a visual image of reading material
  • Why: Comprehension is enhanced when readers use images to immerse themselves in rich details during reading.
  • When: Before, during and after reading
  • How: Ask questions about scenes, colors, sounds, characters, etc.; create a movie in the mind.

Determine Importance

  • What: The ability to separate the important from the unimportant
  • Why: Focusing upon main ideas and relationships helps establish a purpose for reading and creates active readers who comprehend better.
  • When: During and after reading; at the word level, sentence level and text level
  • How: Use background knowledge, understanding of author’s intentions and goals, along with knowledge of text structure to determine main ideas.

Summarize

  • What: Reducing text to its main points and creating a retelling
  • Why: Summarizing helps readers remember and recall the most important ideas related to the text.
  • When: Note taking; studying for an exam or after reading a text
  • How:
    • Include important vs. trivial details.
    • Collapse lists and ideas into 1 or 2 phrases or short sentences.
    • Use topic sentences.
    • Integrate information.
    • Polish summary.

How to teach these 8 effective strategies

The components of the following model are based upon direct instructruction, as described by Duke and Pearson (2002). This form of instruction includes explicit explanation and gradual release of responsibility.

  • Explicit explanation/description of the strategy, including how, when and why it should be used
  • Teacher and student modeling of the strategy in action
  • Collaborative use of the strategy in action
  • Guided practice using the strategy, with gradual release of responsibility
  • Independent use of strategy
  • Reinforcement of strategy use in many and varied circumstances