Reading Strategies

Reading Strategies

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to identify and apply reading strategies to improve comprehension.
• Students will use strategies such as previewing, predicting, questioning, visualizing, and summarizing while reading a text.
• Students will enhance their ability to engage with and analyze both fiction and non-fiction texts.

Essential Questions

1. How do predictions help us stay engaged with the text?
2. How does what we already know influence our understanding of the text?
3. How can we determine which details to include in a summary and which to leave out?
4. How does drawing inferences help us understand themes or messages in a story?
5. How do mental images help us experience and understand the text more deeply?
6. Why is it important to use both text features and visuals when reading for understanding?

Reading strategies are techniques that readers use to help them understand, interpret, and engage with the text more effectively. These strategies are especially important when reading complex or unfamiliar material, as they provide ways to actively interact with the text, rather than passively reading. Here’s a breakdown of what reading strategies are:

Click on each icon to learn about a reading strategy.

How to Practice Making Predictions:

Before Reading: Look at the title, cover, or illustrations of a book and predict what it will be about. During Reading: Pause at key points in the text and ask, "What do I think will happen next?" or "What might this character do in this situation?" After Reading: Reflect on whether the predictions were correct. If not, what clues were missed, or how did the story surprise the reader?

How to Activate Prior Knowledge:

Before Reading:

• Preview the Text: Look at the title, cover, illustrations, or opening paragraphs, and ask, "What do I already know about this topic, setting, or type of story?"
• Make Predictions: Based on what you already know, make predictions about what might happen in the story or what the themes could be.

During Reading:

• Ask Questions: As you read, ask questions like, "How does this relate to something I've experienced?" or "What does this remind me of from another story or event?"
• Make Connections: Identify personal, textual, or world connections to what you’re reading. Personal connections involve relating the story to your life; textual connections link the story to other books, movies, or media you’ve encountered; world connections are about connecting the story to broader historical, cultural, or social knowledge.

After Reading:

• Reflect: Think about how your prior knowledge helped you understand the story. Were your predictions correct? How did the text confirm or challenge what you already knew?

How to Practice Summarizing:

• Summarize Short Passages: Start with small sections of text, like a single paragraph or a short chapter, and gradually work up to longer sections.
• Use Graphic Organizers: Tools like story maps, plot diagrams, or main idea/detail charts can help visually organize the text before summarizing.
• Summarize Orally: After reading a passage, try explaining it in your own words to a partner or group. This verbal practice can help solidify your understanding.

In summary (no pun intended!), summarizing helps readers distill complex information into its essential parts, promoting better comprehension, retention, and critical thinking.

How to Practice Drawing Inferences:

• Practice with Short Passages: Read short passages where the author leaves things unsaid and ask students to infer what’s happening. For example, if a character is described as fidgeting nervously, ask, "How do you think the character is feeling?"
• Use Graphic Organizers: Create a chart where students list text clues on one side and their inferences on the other. This helps them visualize the connection between the clues and their logical conclusions.
• Discuss Inferences in Groups: Share inferences with others and explain the reasoning behind them. This encourages collaboration and allows students to see different interpretations of the same text.

How to Practice Creating Mental Images:

• Draw the Scene: After reading a descriptive passage, students can draw what they visualized based on the text. This practice strengthens their ability to create clear mental images.
• Discuss or Share Visualizations: Have students share their mental images with classmates. This allows them to see how different readers visualize the same text and encourages deeper thinking about the details in the story.
• Use Graphic Organizers: Provide students with a graphic organizer that encourages them to write down sensory details from the text and what they visualize for each sense.
• Guide Visualization with Questions: Teachers can guide students through visualization by asking questions like, "What do you see in this scene?" "How does it feel to be in this place?" or "What sounds do you imagine as this event unfolds?"

How to Use Text Features and Visual Cues as a Strategy:

• Preview the Text: Before reading, skim through the headings, subheadings, images, captions, and bolded terms. This gives you an overview of what the text is about and helps set a purpose for reading.
• Pay Attention to Layout: Look at how the text is structured. Are there text boxes, bullet points, or diagrams? Use these to guide your understanding of the main points and how they are related.
• Use the Table of Contents and Index: These tools help you find specific information and understand the structure of the text. If you’re looking for a particular topic, check these sections to save time and stay focused.
• Refer to Visuals: When a chart, graph, or image is included, take time to study it. Often, visuals provide a shortcut to understanding complex data or ideas that are discussed in the text.
• Highlight Important Information: If you are reading a printed text, use highlighting or annotations to mark important features like key terms in bold or significant details in sidebars. For digital texts, use the “highlight” or “note” functions.
• Check the Glossary and Footnotes: If you come across unfamiliar words or concepts, refer to the glossary or footnotes for explanations or definitions.

Answers

Click on each image to read the sample answers for each question

Using text features and visual cues is a reading strategy that helps readers better understand and navigate a text by focusing on the organizational elements and design features that provide additional information or context. These features and cues act as guides, making it easier for readers to identify important points, grasp the structure, and connect with the content more effectively.

Creating a mental image, also known as visualization, is a reading strategy that involves forming mental pictures or images in the reader’s mind while reading. This strategy helps readers better understand and connect with the text by making it more vivid and tangible. When readers visualize what they are reading, they engage more deeply with the material and enhance their overall comprehension.

Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game: “Off there to the right—somewhere—is a large island,” said Whitney. “It’s rather a mystery—” “What island is it?” Rainsford asked. “The old charts call it ‘Ship-Trap Island,’” Whitney replied. “A suggestive name, isn’t it? Sailors have a curious dread of the place. I don’t know why. Some superstition—” Make predictions based on the excerpt and their prior knowledge:

• What do you think might happen on Ship-Trap Island?

• Why do you think the island is feared by sailors?

• Identify the key points or main ideas from the passage.
• Rainsford and his companion discuss the idea that there are two types of people: hunters and the hunted.
• They mention a nearby island with a bad reputation.
• Rainsford dismisses the fear of the island as superstition, but his companion notes that one sailor’s fear can affect the whole crew.

• Summarize the excerpt in one or two sentences, focusing on the most important ideas.
• Sample Summary: Rainsford and his companion talk about the idea of people being either hunters or the hunted. They also discuss a mysterious island with a bad reputation, which Rainsford dismisses as mere superstition, though his companion is more cautious about the fear it generates among sailors.

• What do you think might happen on Ship-Trap Island?
• "I predict that Ship-Trap Island is a place where something mysterious and deadly happens, like a predator or person hunting anyone who lands there. Sailors might fear it because they’ve heard stories about people who never return once they get close to the island.

• Why do you think the island is feared by sailors?
• "It sounds like the island is feared because ships may get caught in some kind of trap, like rocky shores or hidden dangers in the water. Sailors are likely afraid because they think it’s cursed or because many ships have wrecked there in the past."

• What do the headings and subheadings help you understand?
• The headings and subheadings help me understand the main topic and the structure of the information. The heading "The Rainforest Ecosystem" tells me that the text will discuss what rainforests are and why they are important. The subheading "Did You Know?" introduces interesting facts related to the main topic, making the information easier to follow and breaking up the text into clear sections.
• What is the purpose of the bulleted list under the "Did You Know?" section?
• The purpose of the bulleted list under the "Did You Know?" section is to highlight key facts about rainforests in a quick and easy-to-read format. The list draws attention to interesting, surprising information, like how rainforests produce 20% of the world's oxygen, and the fact that the Amazon Rainforest is the largest in the world. These facts add depth to the topic without overwhelming the reader with too much detail.

Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game: "He was in a picture with a frame of water, and his operations, clearly, must take place within that frame. 'I'll give him a trail to follow,' muttered Rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. Night found him leg-weary, with hands and face lashed by the branches, on a thickly wooded ridge. He knew it would be insane to blunder on through the dark, even if he had the strength. His need for rest was imperative and he thought, 'I have played the fox, now I must play the cat of the fable.' A big tree with a thick trunk and outspread branches seemed to offer a night’s refuge." What can you infer about Rainsford's situation from the phrase “picture with a frame of water”?

Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game: “Rainsford sprang up and moved quickly to the rail, mystified. He strained his eyes in the direction from which the reports had come, but it was like trying to see through a blanket. He leaped upon the rail and balanced himself there, to get greater elevation; his pipe, striking a rope, was knocked from his mouth. He lunged for it; a short, hoarse cry came from his lips as he realized he had reached too far and had lost his balance. The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea closed over his head.”

• What do you think will happen to Rainsford now that he has fallen into the water?

• Will he be able to swim back to the yacht, or will something prevent him from doing so?

The Rainforest Ecosystem Rainforests are dense forests located near the equator, characterized by high rainfall and diverse species. These ecosystems play a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate and are home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. Did You Know?

• Rainforests produce 20% of the world's oxygen.
• The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.

What do the headings and subheadings help you understand? What is the purpose of the bulleted list under the "Did You Know?" section?

Summarizing is a reading strategy that involves condensing the main ideas or key events of a text into a shorter, more concise form. The goal of summarizing is to capture the essential points of a passage, chapter, or entire text without including unnecessary details. This strategy helps readers focus on the most important information, aiding in both comprehension and retention of what they've read.

Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game: "The jungle was thick, dark, and oppressively quiet. The air was heavy and warm, and the smell of damp earth filled Rainsford’s nostrils. Overhead, thick vines tangled with branches, blocking out the moonlight. Every step he took felt as though the forest was swallowing him, the leaves brushing against his face like ghostly fingers. His heart pounded in his chest as he strained to listen for any sound in the eerie silence." What do you see in your mind when you read about the “thick, dark jungle”? Imagine what the trees, vines, and shadows look like. Can you see the darkness surrounding Rainsford?

• What do you think will happen to Rainsford now that he has fallen into the water?

• "I think Rainsford will have trouble swimming back to the yacht because it’s dark and he probably can’t see where it is. The water seems dangerous, and something might prevent him from getting back, like strong currents or an animal in the water."

• Will he be able to swim back to the yacht, or will something prevent him from doing so?

• "I don’t think Rainsford will be able to get back to the yacht. Since it’s already moving, it’s likely too far away by now. I predict that something else will force him toward the island, like rough waters or exhaustion."

Activating prior knowledge is a reading strategy that involves recalling and using information that the reader already knows to better understand and connect with a new text. When readers engage with literature, they bring their own experiences, background knowledge, and understanding of the world to the story. By consciously tapping into this knowledge, they are better able to comprehend and interpret what they are reading.

Excerpt from The Most Dangerous Game: "The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the hunted. Luckily, you and I are hunters," said Rainsford. "Do you think we've passed that island yet?" Rainsford asked. "I can't tell in the dark. I hope so." "Why?" asked Rainsford. "The place has a reputation—a bad one." "But it’s only superstition, isn't it?" "One superstitious sailor can taint the whole ship's company with his fear." Identify the key points or main ideas from the passage. Summarize the excerpt in one or two sentences, focusing on the most important ideas.

Making predictions is a reading strategy that involves thinking ahead and anticipating what will happen next in a text. This strategy keeps readers actively engaged by encouraging them to use clues from the text and their own knowledge to guess what might come later. Making predictions helps to enhance comprehension because it requires the reader to pay close attention to details and connect them to the overall plot, theme, or ideas in the text.

Drawing inferences is a reading strategy that involves using clues from the text, combined with prior knowledge and reasoning, to figure out information that the author doesn’t explicitly state. It’s about "reading between the lines" to understand hidden meanings, implications, or conclusions based on the evidence presented. This strategy helps readers engage more deeply with the text and grasp the underlying messages or themes.

• What can you infer about Rainsford's situation from the phrase “picture with a frame of water”?

• From the phrase “picture with a frame of water,” I can infer that Rainsford is trapped on an island, surrounded by water with no easy escape. The “frame of water” suggests that his movement is limited, and he must navigate within the boundaries of the island.

• What do you see in your mind when you read about the “thick, dark jungle”?
• When I read about the "thick, dark jungle," I imagine a dense forest with towering trees, their branches covered in thick vines that twist and tangle above, blocking out any light from the moon or stars.

• Imagine what the trees, vines, and shadows look like. Can you see the darkness surrounding Rainsford?
• The shadows are deep and make everything seem even more claustrophobic. It feels like the jungle is closing in on Rainsford, almost trapping him. The air is warm and heavy, and I can picture the dampness clinging to the leaves and the ground. It’s so dark that it would be hard for him to see more than a few feet ahead, and the silence makes the atmosphere feel even more tense and eerie.