READING STRATEGIES (handouts for students)

1) Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details

The main idea of a story is what the whole story is mostly about.
The details are small pieces of information that make the story more interesting.

It is easy to identify a main idea that is directly expressed in the text. Main ideas are often found:
 at the beginning of paragraphs. The first sentence often explains the subject being discussed in the
passage.
 in the concluding sentences of a paragraph. The main idea can be expressed as a summation of the
information in the paragraph as well as a link to the information in the next paragraph.

Try the passage below to see if you can pick out the main idea.
"To many parents, the infant's crying may be mainly an irritation, especially if it continues for long
periods. But crying serves important functions for the child as well as for the parents. For the child,
crying helps improve lung capacity and the respiratory system. Perhaps more important, the cry serves as
a signal of distress. When babies cry, they indicate that they are hungry or in pain, and this is important
information for parents."

After reading a paragraph ask, "What point is the author making in this passage?"

2) Relating background knowledge

Call it schema, relevant background knowledge, prior knowledge, or just plain experience, when you make
connections to the text you are reading, your comprehension increases. Good readers constantly try to make
sense out of what they read by seeing how it fits with what they already know. This makes connections before,
during, and after you read,

3) Summarizing
Summarizing is defined as taking a lot of information and creating a condensed version that covers the main
points. An example of summarizing is writing a three or four-sentence description that touches upon the
main points of a long book.

Read this article:

London — People in Britain and its commonwealth nations woke up on Friday with a new monarch for the
first time in most of their lives. King Charles III returned to London from Scotland to meet the prime minister
and address the British people for the first time as their monarch.
Buckingham Palace announced that Charles had requested a formal "period of Royal Mourning" for his
mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday after a record 70-year reign. The U.K.'s longest-reigning
monarch, one of the world's most enduring and instantly recognizable personalities, died at her beloved
summer home in Scotland, Balmoral Castle, at the age of 96.
The following week and a half will see a meticulously orchestrated process of both mourning and
constitutional transition play out across Great Britain. It will be colored by the grief of a grateful nation
mourning a queen with whom many felt a deep connection.
Tributes continued to pour in from leaders, dignitaries and celebrities from across the globe Friday as
thousands of people flocked to Buckingham Palace and the queen's other homes to lay flowers and notes of
thanks for Elizabeth's lifetime of dedication and service. King Charles showed up with his wife, Queen
Consort Camilla, to shake the hands of well-wishers in front of Buckingham Palace.

4) Sequencing
 Sequencing refers to the identification of the components of a story — the beginning, middle, and end —
and also to the ability to retell the events within a given text in the order in which they occurred. The
ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts.

SEQUENCING SIGNAL WORDS

Beginning Middle End
● Once upon a time / Once ● Meanwhile ● In the end
there was ● After that ● Finally
● In the beginning ● Suddenly ● After all
● First of all

5) Comparing and contrasting

Comparing involves identifying similarities and/or differences (e.g., apples and oranges are both fruit) whereas
contrasting involves comparing two or more objects or events in order to show their differences (e.g., an apple
has a thin skin that we can eat; an orange has a thick skin that we cannot eat).

6) Inferencing
If you're making an inference while reading, you're making a guess about what you don't know based on
the information available—basically, you're reading between the lines. You can use your prior knowledge
and textual information to draw conclusions, make critical judgments, and form interpretations of the text

7) Drawing conclusions
Drawing conclusions refers to information that is implied or inferred. This means that the information is
never clearly stated. Writers often tell you more than they say directly.

When you read a passage, sometimes the most important points won't be directly stated in the passage. Instead,
you have to put together some puzzle pieces to figure them out. This is called drawing conclusions. Drawing
conclusions means putting together ideas in a passage to understand a point that wasn't directly stated in the
passage. You already do this all the time. For example, let's say I tell you this tale of woe:

When I left the house this morning, the kitchen was totally clean and all the dishes were done. The only person
home all day was my roommate Jeremy. And when I got home, the kitchen was a mess and there were dirty
dishes everywhere, and I had to do them again just to make my own dinner! Ugh, it's so unfair.

8) Self-questioning
Self-questioning is an evaluative process that consists in students asking themselves helpful questions
before, during and after learning to check their understanding of the content.
Students can ask questions for a variety of reasons:
to clarify meaning (ex. What does that word mean? Why is that happening? What I am learning?)
to understand the characters and events better (ex. Why did the character do that? Why did that happen?
What would happen if…?)
to understand the author’s intent (ex. Why did the author write this?)
to make predictions (ex. I wonder if __________ will happen?)

9) Problem-solving
Problem-solving strategies help the reader read accurately, smoothly, and with understanding. Readers
use information from within the text and beyond the text (world experience) to help them make meaning. Your
child will use an increasingly wide range of strategies as he or she grows as a reader.
The processing strategies that readers use are:
Attending and searching – looking purposefully for particular information, known words, familiar text
features, patterns of syntax, and information in pictures and diagrams;
Predicting – forming expectations or anticipating what will come next by drawing on prior knowledge and
experience of language;
Cross-checking and confirming – checking to ensure that the reading makes sense and fits with all the
information already processed;
Self-correcting – detecting or suspecting that an error has been made and searching for additional
information in order to arrive at the right meaning.