1. Reading
Comprehension
Strategies
Understanding What
You Read

2. Seven Strategies of Successful Readers:
1. They use existing knowledge to make sense
of new information.
2. They ask questions about the text before,
during, and after reading.
3. They draw inferences from the text.
4. They monitor their comprehension.
5. They use “fix-up” strategies when meaning
breaks down.
6. They determine what is important.
7. They synthesize information to create new
thinking

3. Signals of Confusion:
1. The voice inside the reader’s head isn’t
interacting with the text.
2. The camera inside the reader’s head shuts of.
3. The reader’s mind begins to wander.
4. The reader can’t remember what has been
read.
5. Clarifying questions asked by the reader are
not answered.
6. The reader reencounters a character and has
no recollection when that character was
introduced.

4. Fix-it Strategies:
• Make a connection between the text and your
life, your knowledge of the world, or another text.
• Make a prediction.
• Stop and think about what you have already
read.
• Ask yourself a question and try to answer it.
• Reflect in writing on what you have read.
• Visualize.
• Use print conventions.
• Retell what you’ve read.
• Reread.
• Notice patterns in text structure.
• Adjust your reading rate: slow down or speed up.

5. Making connections helps readers!
Remember the following techniques to
make connections:
• Relate to characters.
• Visualize.
• Avoid boredom, if you start to get
bored…take a short break.
• Pay attention, take your reading
seriously.
• Listen to others’ ideas about the
reading.
• Read actively.
• Remember what they read.
• Ask questions.

6. Voices: What you “hear” when
you are reading
• Reciting Voice
The voice a reader hears when he is only reciting the
words and not drawing meaning from the text.
• Conversation Voice
The voice that has a conversation with the text. It
represents the reader’s thinking as he/she talks back
to the text in an interactive way. It can take two
forms:
o Interacting Voice
This voice encourages the reader to infer, make
connections, ask questions, and synthesize
information.
o Distracting Voice
This voice pulls the reader away from the text.

7. Text-to-Reader Connections:
How to relate to your reading
• Text to self: Connections between the text and
the reader’s experiences and memories. The more
experiences and memories a reader has about a
topic, the easier the material is to read.
• Text to world: Connections the reader makes
between the text and what he knows about the
world (facts and information).
• Text to text: Connections the reader makes
between two or more types of texts. The reader
may make connections relative to plot, content,
structure, or style.

8. Questioning/I Wonder…
Questions can be more powerful than
answers. Good readers ask questions
throughout the reading process: before,
during, and after reading. Readers who ask
questions when they read assume
responsibility for their learning and improve
their comprehension in four ways:
• By interacting with text.
• By motivating themselves to read.
• By clarifying information in the text.
• By inferring beyond the literal meaning.

9. Correcting Confusion
Comprehension Technique:
• Sticky Notes
Place sticky notes next to passages
that cause confusion so that you can
return to them.
• Highlighters
Use highlighters to mark places you
understand (pink) and places that are
confusing (yellow).

10. Understanding Purpose
A reader’s purpose affects everything about reading. It
determines what’s important in the text, what is
remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader
uses to enhance meaning.
Comprehension Technique:
• Read the article and circle what you think is important.
• Read the piece again, and this time use a pink highlighter
to mark places in the text that a _____ would find important.
• Read the piece again, and this time use a yellow
highlighter to mark places in the text that a _____ would find
important.
• What did you notice about the three times you
highlighted. The first time was probably the hardest because
you had no purpose.

11. Discovering
Meaning/Vocabulary
• Look it up!! Do not be afraid to use a
dictionary. (Free dictionary apps for
your smart phone are even available!)
• Look at the structure of the word. Is
there a familiar prefix, root, or suffix?
• Use the glossary.
• Read the words around the unknown
word. Can another word be substituted?

12. Thinking Aloud
Good readers engage in mental processes before, during,
and after they read in order to comprehend text. They
stop often to think out loud and describe what is going on
in their minds as they read.
Comprehension Technique:
• Select a short piece of text.
• Foresee difficulty.
• Read the text out loud and stop often to share your
thinking.
• Point out the words in the text that trigger your thinking.
o I am reminded of _____
o I wonder _________
o I am confused _____________
o I notice that this piece is organize like this _________.

13. Marking Text
Marking text helps readers pay attention and
remember what they read.
Comprehension Technique:
• Assign codes to the types of thinking in which you
engage. As you read, mark these codes next to the
passages in the text that trigger these kinds of thinking
and explain the connection.
o C = connection reader makes to own life and
text
o ? = questions reader has about text
o I = inference or conclusion reader draws from text
• Read the text.
• Use sticky notes to attach to appropriate spots.
• Use highlighters. Use yellow to highlight portion not
understood. Write a fix-up strategy next to it.

14. Double-entry Diaries (DED)
DEDs are similar to taking notes.
Comprehension Techniques:
• Divide page in half with questions and main ideas on
the left and specific information on the right.
• Divide page in half with direct quote from text and
page number on the left and thinking options on the
right (reader’s reactions).
• Divide page in half with facts or details on the left
and author’s message on the right.
• Divide page in half with confusing part in text on the
left and reader’s attempt to get unstuck on the right.
• Divide page in half with new/confusing vocabulary
on the left and reader’s knowledge on the right.

15. Comprehension Constructors
This requires readers to use two or more thinking
strategies.
Comprehension Technique:
• Call up any background knowledge you have about
topic in the text.
• Read the text.
• As you read the piece, you should have a number of
questions. Jot them down (at least 3) in the margins
where they occur to you.
• At the end of the piece, write a response. It should
be a paragraph of at least four sentences.
• Look back at the questions you asked. Write the three
best questions below and then decide where the
answers to the questions can be found: in the text, in
your head, in another source.

16. Sources:
 “Study Skills Activities: Reading as a Study
Skill.” Montana State Literacy Resources:
A Service of the National Institute of
Literacy.
http://www.nwlincs.org/mtlincs/pilotproje
ct/studyskills/studyskillsindex.htm
 “Academic Support Guides: Reading
Comprehension.” Cuesta College.
http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as
/300INDEX.HTM