Becoming A Reader

compiled by Anne Snyder, Walter White

Learning to Read
Means Thinking About
Your Reading and
How to Improve
Real reading means:

• figuring out what a

word says (that’s
decoding) and
• knowing what the word
means (that’s
comprehension).
To understand and enjoy
reading more, you need to
think when you are
reading. Thinking about
reading helps you
remember what to do
when you don’t know a
word.
What Good Readers Do
to Figure Out a Word
• Get your mouth ready!
• Blend and hold the
sounds.
• Go back, point, and
slide.
• Look at the picture and
think about the story.
• Look for a vowel
spelling pattern.
• Look for a little word in
a big word.
• Back up and reread the
sentence.
• Get a running start and
reread several
sentences.
Ask yourself ---

• Does it sound like

language?
• Do the letters match
what I am saying?
• Where do the syllables
split?
To understand and enjoy
reading more, you need
to think when you are
reading. Thinking
about reading builds
meaning!
Good Readers Think to
Use:
• Context Clues -- The
meanings of the words in
the sentence or in the
surrounding sentences
can give you clues.
Good Readers Think to
Use:
• Word Structure –
Knowing the meaning
of a part of a word can
give you clues to a
word’s meaning.
Good Readers Think to
Use:
• Apposition – Other
words in the sentence
may give you the
definition of your word.
The definition is often
set off by commas.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
VISUALIZE by making
mental pictures in
your head of
what you are
reading.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
PREDICT what will
happen next in the
story based on your
prior experience and
what you’ve read so
far. Watch to see if
your prediction comes
true.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
SUMMARIZE as you read
by stopping once or twice
along the way to retell
the story to yourself to
help you remember and
understand important
events.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
MAKE CONNECTIONS
from the story to your
life, to another story, or
to something
happening in
the world.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
ACTIVATE YOUR PRIOR
KNOWLEDGE, use your
schema, to infer
meaning from the
events of the story.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
ASK YOURSELF
QUESTIONS as you read
and see if you can answer
them as you continue
reading. Asking
questions deepens your
understanding.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
MONITOR AND CLARIFY by
rereading and discussing
confusing parts of the
story until it all makes
more sense and becomes
clear to you.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
ADJUST YOUR SPEED
by slowing down when
the words are difficult
or confusing so you
can understand better.
Thinking about reading
means you . . .
SET GOALS FOR YOURSELF
by setting a purpose for
reading before you begin. At
times you may read for
fluency or to make
connections or just for fun.
GOOD READERS . . .

Use all these

strategies to
become better,
more fluent
readers.
Good Readers Work
Hard . . .
To make reading as
much fun as it can
be!