Reading (Comprehension) Strategies

Building Reading Comprehension Karen M. Stiles, Ph.D. Educational Interventions Reading (Comprehension) Strategies

1. Assess and establish baseline in reading comprehension. Look for strengths and weaknesses, establish goals and discuss with student. Test regularly for growth and chart with student so he or she can see their progress.

2. Use recorded texts and Start to Finish books, so student can read along while hearing recorded text. Even though student doesn’t need this support for decoding, it will help build language and reading comprehension abilities.

3. At first, add stop and check points for student, say mark with a big red line

4. Preview material, what is to be read, new concepts or vocabulary. Providing glossary with

5. Use an “Advance Organizer” Make these up in advance for ALL reading. Basically this is a diagram or chart of the content of the text that the student can refer to while reading.

What to be thinking about in Chapter 4

How are owls different from other birds? How often do they breed? Where do they live? Who are their enemies? How do they protect their young? What do they eat?

6. Use color-coded highlighting for ALL reading. Ex: Sentence with main idea is green. Important details are pink or yellow. After student learns to use this to his benefit, teach how to find main idea and important details and have him or her color code as they read. Eventually, the skill of identifying these will become stronger so student may not need to do this.

7. (When strategy skills are developed) Before reading, discuss what reading strategy should be used: a. Teach how to skim b. Write questions down before reading c. Highlight text d. Color code e. Make a diagram while reading f. Post it Notes can be used on pages to write down comments, key words or phrases 8. After reading, have student make up a test or write down questions about the material. Building Reading Comprehension Karen M. Stiles, Ph.D. Educational Interventions

For this student:

Make a list of what to do when reading (step by step) and color code, break down to just do one of these things at a time while reading, until skill is demonstrated consistently.

1. What is the story (report, paragraph) about? 2. Find the main idea 3. Find the supporting details 4. ______5. ______6. ______