Resources › For Educators

10 Strategies to Increase Student Reading

Comprehension
Share
SHARE Flipboard
FLIP Email
EMAIL

People Images / Getty Images

By Melissa Kelly
Updated January 16, 2019

"They don't understand what they are reading!" laments the teacher.

"This book is too hard," complains a student, "I'm confused!" Ad

Statements like these are commonly heard in grades 7-12, and they highlight a reading
h i bl th t ill tt t d t' d i S h di
comprehension problem that will connect to a student's academic success. Such reading
comprehension problems are not limited to low-level readers. There are several reasons

that even the best reader in class may have problems understanding the reading that a
teacher assigns.

One major reason for a lack of understanding or confusion is the course textbook. Many
of the content area textbooks in middle and high schools are designed to cram as much
information as possible into the textbook and each of its chapters. This density of
information may justify the cost of textbooks, but this density may be at the expense of
student reading comprehension. 

Another reason for a lack of understanding is the high level, content-specific vocabulary
(science, social studies, etc) in textbooks, which results in an increase in a textbook's
complexity. A textbook's organization with sub-headings, bolded terms, definitions,
charts, graphs coupled with sentence structure also increase complexity. Most textbooks
are rated using a Lexile range, which is a measure of a text's vocabulary and sentences.
The average Lexile level of textbooks, 1070L-1220L, does not consider the more wide
range of student reading Lexile levels that may range from 3rd grade (415L to 760L) to
12th grade (1130L to 1440L).

The same can be said for the wide range of reading for students in English classes, which
contributes to low reading comprehension. Students are assigned reading from the
literary canon including works by Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Steinbeck. Students
read literature that differs in format (drama, epic, essay, etc). Students read literature
that differs in writing style, from 17th Century drama to the Modern American novella.

This difference between student reading levels and text complexity suggests increased
attention should be given to teaching and modeling reading comprehension strategies in
all content areas. Some students may not have the background knowledge or maturity to
understand material written for an older audience. In addition, it is not unusual to have
a student with a high Lexile readability measure encounter problems with reading
comprehension because of his or her lack of background or prior knowledge, even with
a low Lexile text.

Many students struggle trying to determine the key ideas from the details; other students
have a hard time understanding what the purpose of a paragraph or chapter in the book
may be. Helping students increase their reading comprehension can be a key to
educational success or failure. Good reading comprehension strategies, therefore, are
Ad
not only for low-level readers but for all readers. There is always room for improving
comprehension, no matter how skilled a reader a student may be. 
The importance of reading comprehension cannot be understated. Reading
comprehension is one of five elements identified as central to the instruction of reading

according to the National Reading Panel in the late 1990s. Reading comprehension,
the report noted, is the result of many different mental activities by a reader, done
automatically and simultaneously, in order to understand the meaning communicated
by a text. These mental activities include, but are not limited to:

Predicting the meaning of a text;

Determining the purpose of a text; 

Activation of prior knowledge in order to...

Connect prior experiences to the text;

Identify word and sentence meanings in order to decode the text;

Summarize the text in order to create new meanings;

Visualize the characters, settings, situations in the text;

Question the text;

Decide what is not understood in the text;

Use strategies to improve understanding of the text;

Reflect on the meaning of a text;

Apply understanding of the text as needed.

Reading comprehension is now thought to be a process that is interactive, strategic, and

adaptable for each reader. Reading comprehension is not learned immediately, it is
a process that is learned over time. In other words, reading comprehension takes
practice.

Here are ten (10) effective tips and strategies that teachers can share with students to
improve their comprehension of a text. These are strategies for all students. If the
students have dyslexia or other special learning requirements, they may need additional
strategies.

01 Generate Questions
of 10
Ad
A good strategy to teach all readers is that instead of just rushing through a passage or
chapter,  is to pause and generate questions. These can either be questions about what
has just happened or what they think might happen in the future. Doing this can help
them focus on the main ideas and increase the student's engagement with the material. 

After reading, students can go back and write questions that could be included in a quiz
or test on the material. This will require them to look at the information in a different
manner. By asking questions in this way, students can help the teacher correct
misconceptions. This method also provides immediate feedback.

Continue Reading Below

Advertisement

02 Read Aloud and Monitor

of 10

While some might think of a teacher reading aloud in a secondary classroom as an

elementary practice, there is evidence that reading aloud also benefits middle and high
school students as well. Most importantly, by reading aloud teachers can model good
reading behavior.

Reading aloud to students should also include stops to check for understanding.
Teachers can demonstrate their own think-aloud or interactive elements and focus
intentionally on the meaning “within the text,” “about the text,” and “beyond the text”
(Fountas & Pinnell, 2006) These interactive elements can push students for deeper
thought around a big idea. Discussions after reading aloud can support conversations in
class that help students make critical connections.

Continue Reading Below

Advertisement
Ad
03 Promote Cooperative Talk
of 10

Having students stop periodically to turn and talk in order to discuss what has just been
read can reveal any issues with understanding. Listening to students can inform
instruction and help a teacher to can reinforce what is being taught.

This is a useful strategy that can be used after a read-aloud (above) when all students
have a shared experience in listening to a text.

This kind of cooperative learning, where students learn reading strategies reciprocally, is
one of the most powerful instructional tools.

04 Attention to Text Structure

of 10

An excellent strategy that soon becomes second nature is to have struggling students
read through all the headings and subheadings in any chapter that they have been
assigned. They can also look at the pictures and any graphs or charts. This information
can help them gain an overview of what they will be learning as they read the chapter.

The same attention to text structure can be applied in reading literary works that use a
story structure. Students can use the elements in a story's structure (setting, character,
plot, etc) as a means of helping them recall story content.

Continue Reading Below

Ad
Advertisement
05 Take Notes or Annotate Texts
of 10

Students should read with paper and pen in hand. They can then take notes of things
they predict or understand. They can write down questions. They can create a
vocabulary list of all the highlighted words in the chapter along with any unfamiliar
terms that they need to define. Taking notes is also helpful in preparing students for
later discussions in class.

Annotations in a text, writing in the margins or highlighting, is another powerful way to

record understanding. This strategy is ideal for handouts.

Using sticky notes can allow students to record information from a text without
damaging the text. Sticky notes can also be removed and organized later for responses to
a text.

06 Use Context Clues

of 10

Students need to use the hints that an author provides in a text. Students may need to
look at context clues, that is a word or phrase directly before or after  a word they may
not know.

Context clues may be in the form of:

Roots and affixes: origin of the word;

Ad
Contrast: recognizing how word is compared or contrasted with another word in
the sentence;
 Logic: considering the rest of the sentence to understand an unknown word;

Definition: using a provided explanation that follows the word; 

Example or Illustration: literal or visual representation of the word;

Grammar: determining how the word functions in a sentence to better understand

its meaning.

Continue Reading Below

Advertisement

07 Use Graphic Organizers

of 10

Some students find that graphic organizers like webs and concept maps can
greatly enhance reading comprehension. These allow students to identify areas of focus
and main ideas in a reading. By filling in this information, students can deepen their
understanding of the author's meaning.

By the time students are in grades 7-12,  teachers should allow students to decide which
graphic organizer would be most helpful to them in understanding a text. Giving
students the opportunity to generate representations of the material is part of the
reading comprehension process.

08 Practice PQ4R
of 10

This consists of six steps: Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, and Review.
Ad
Preview: Students scan the material to get an overview. The question means that
students should ask themselves questions as they read.
The four R's have students read the material, reflect on what has just been read, recite
the major points to help learn better, and then return to the material and see if you can
answer the questions previously asked.

This strategy works well when coupled with notes and annotations and is similar to the
SQ3R strategy.

Continue Reading Below

Advertisement
___

‫إﻧﺘﺮﻧﺖ اﻟﺠﻴﻞ اﻟﺨﺎﻣﺲ‬

ً
‫ﻣﺠﺎﻧﺎ ﺑﺈﻧﺘﺮﻧﺖ ﻻﻣﺤﺪود ﻣﻊ‬ ‫راوﺗﺮ‬
‫ اﻟﻤﻔﻮﺗﺮة‬٣٤٩ ‫ﺑﺎﻗﺔ‬

09 Summarizing
of 10

As they read, students should be encouraged to stop periodically stop their reading and
summarize what they have just read. In creating a summary, students have to integrate
the most important ideas and generalize from the text information. They need to distill
the important ideas from the unimportant or irrelevant elements.

This practice of integrating and generalizing in the creation of summaries make long
passages more understandable. 

10 Monitor Understanding
of 10

Some students prefer to annotate, while others are more comfortable summarizing, but
all students must learn how to be aware of how they read. They need to know how
fluently and accurate they are reading a text, but they also need to know how they can
determine their own understanding of the materials.
Ad
They should decide which strategies are most helpful in making meaning, and practice
those strategies, adjusting the strategies when necessary.