This document provides strategies and tips for active reading. It emphasizes making connections, asking questions, expanding vocabulary, predicting, visualizing, determining importance, inferring, summarizing, synthesizing, annotating, and using "fix-up" strategies when comprehension breaks down. The overall message is that reading is an active process that requires thinkers to engage with text in various ways.

1. Karen Silvestri,
Instructional Specialist

2. Reading IS
Thinking
Active readers
“The purpose of reading is
ENGAGE with
understanding.”
the text!

3. Think about what you
read.
Develop an awareness of
your thinking.
Use strategies to help you

4. 1. Connect to the 7. Make Inferences Then Draw
Text Conclusions
2. Ask Questions 8. Summarize and Synthesize
3. Expand Vocabulary 9. Check Your Understanding
4. Predict & Prove 10. Build Fluency
5. Sense It
6. Decide What’s
Important

5. Build a Bridge from the New to
the Known
Ways to connect
Text to Self Text to Text
Text to World

6. This reminds me of…
This is similar to…
The differences are…
This part is like…
This setting reminds me of…
This character makes me think of…
I also (name something in the text that also
happened to you)…
I never (name something in the text that has
never happened to you)…

7. Ask yourself questions as you read!
“Questioning is the strategy that keeps readers engaged.
When readers ask questions, they clarify understanding and
forge ahead to make meaning. Asking questions is at the heart
of thoughtful reading.” Harvey and Goudvis
What does this mean?
What would happen
if…?
What will happen next?
Why did the author

8. Why….?
Why did…?
Who is…?
What would happen if…?
What does this section
mean?
Do you think that?
How is this (detail) like this

9. “The larger
the reader’s Highlight unknown
vocabulary words.
(either oral Break confusing
or print), the words down.
easier it is to Place the word in
make sense its context.
of the text.” Keep a list of new

10. “Research suggests that
when students make
predictions their
understanding increases and
they are more interested in
the reading material.”
Good readers anticipate what’s
Fielding, Anderson, Pearson,
Hanson coming next.
When readers predict, they are aware
when meaning is breaking down.
When an event doesn’t match a
prediction, good readers rethink and

11. I think that…
I predict that…
I wonder if…
I bet that…
Reading this part makes me think that this
(detail) is about to happen.
Since this happened (detail), then I believe the
next thing that is going to happen is…

12. HOW TO PREVIEW
READING
ASSIGNMENTS
 Read the title.
 Check the author and the source of articles and essays.
 Read the introduction or the first paragraph.
 Read each boldface (dark print) heading.
 Read the first sentence under each major heading.
 Note any typographical aids.
 Note any graphic aids.
 Read the last paragraph or summary.
 Read quickly any end-of-article or end-of-chapter material.

13. Visualizing: A Tool to Enhance
Understanding
“Visualizing is a comprehension strategy that enables readers
to make the words on a page real and concrete.” Keene and
Engage with the text by
Zimmerman
creating pictures in your
mind.

14. “Thoughtful
readers grasp
essential ideas and Sort out the
important
information when most important
reading. Readers
must differentiate details.
between less Highlight the
important ideas
and key ideas that key points in

15. READING STRATEGY TIP –
HIGHLIGHTING
 Highlight main ideas and only key supporting details.
 Avoid highlighting complete sentences.
 Use the 15-25 % rule (highlight no more than 15-25%).
 Use the highlighter to EMPHASIZE key words.
 Look for lines that cause you to ask a question
 Look for lines that you relate to personally
 Look for lines that strike a chord in you – whether or not you
know why!
 Look for words that confuse you or are unfamiliar.

16. “Inferring is at
Think ahead! the intersection
Make a of taking what is
known, garnering
guess! clues from the
Read the text, and
thinking ahead to
clues and draw make a
judgment,

17. Reading Strategy Tip
– Annotating
 Circle unknown words
 Mark off definitions with the notation def
 Mark off examples with the notation ex
 Number lists of ideas, causes, reasons, or events
 Place asterisks (*) next to important passages
 Put question marks next to confusing passages
 Mark off possible test questions
 Write comments and notes in the margins
 Mark off summary statements with the notation sum

18. Synthesizing is putting together
separate parts into a new whole….a
process akin to working a jigsaw puzzle.
What you already
Harvey and Goudvis
know
What you don’t know


19. READING STRATEGY TIP –
SUMMARIZING
 Highlight or write brief notes on the material.
 Write one sentence that states the writer’s overall concern or most
important idea.
 Be sure to paraphrase, using your own words rather than those of the
author.
 Review the major supporting information that the author gives to
explain the major idea.
 The amount of detail you include, if any, depends on your purpose for
writing the summary.
 Normally, present ideas in the summary in the same order in which they
appeared in the original material.
 If the writer presents a clear opinion or expresses an attitude toward the
subject matter, include it in your summary.

20. “If confusion
disrupts meaning,
readers need to
stop and clarify
When you
their
understanding.
start to lose
Readers may use a
variety of
focus, use fix-
strategies to “fix up strategies!
up”

21. FIX-UP STRATEGIES
 Source: Tovani, Cris. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?
A “fix-up” strategy is any strategy used by a reader to help
get unstuck when the text becomes confusing.
Make a connection between the text and your life, your
knowledge of the world, 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 about what you have read.

22. MORE FIX-UP’S
Use a highlighter to mark confusing passages.
Annotate (notes in the margins).
Use sticky notes to write notes on confusing passages or
words.
Visualize.
Retell to someone what you’ve read.
Reread.
Adjust your reading rate: slow down or speed up.

23. “Fluency is important because it frees
students to understand what they read.”
Report of the National Reading Panel
Active readers are
able to read with
speed, accuracy, and

24. STRENGTHENING YOUR
COMPREHENSION
 Analyze the time and place in which you are reading.
 Rephrase each paragraph in your own words.
 Read aloud sentences or sections that are particularly difficult.
 Reread difficult or complicated sections.
 Slow down your reading rate.
 Write guide questions next to headings.
 Write a brief outline of major points.
 Highlight key ideas.
 Write notes in the margins (annotate).
 Determine if you lack background knowledge.