Comprehension Strategies

Reading Comprehension Strategies 

In Third Class, we have really enjoyed creating hand symbols to help us remember and use our reading comprehension strategies. Each hand symbol reminds us of a different strategy. We also came up with some sentence starters that we can use when we are talking about our strategies during reading.

Predicting

• I suppose..
• From what I know, I don’t think…
• I predict that… will happen next.
• That’s not what I thought would happen.
• Maybe… will happen because…
• I wonder if.. I think… will happen because..

Creating Images

• When I read this I can see…
• I can taste..
• I can see..
• I can see this picture in my head.. it looks like.
• When I read this I imagine..
• I can smell..
• I can hear..
• I can touch..

Declunking

• Think of another word that makes sense.
• Sound out and blend the sounds together.
• Read on.
• Look for parts you know.
• Reread.
• Ask yourself “Does this make sense?”
• I didn’t understand this part…
• I’m confused about…
• There is a word/ phrase/ idea that is confusing me
• I didn’t understand__, so I am going to reread the paragraph again.
• I don’t understand what the author meant by the phrase, __________. I’m going to read on and see can I figure it out.
• This part is extremely difficult but I’m thinking to myself ‘Do I need to fully understand this difficult section to get the overall meaning of the story?

Making Connections

• I felt like this when..
• That reminds me of a time when..
• This sounds very similar to..
• That character reminds me of somebody..
• I already know that..
• That reminds me of another book where..
• Something similar happened to me when..
• It reminds me of earlier in the story when…..because
• When I read that title it immediately reminds me of a time when……
• I remember reading about that in another book. Let me think about what happened. …..

Questioning

• Why do you think?
• When..?
• How..?
• Why..?
• How do you think..?
• Who..?
• Where..?
• What..?
• Why do you think..?
• What did that mean?
• How could that be?
• I wonder..

Synthesising

• At first I thought… but now I think..
• I was surprised when.. because..
• I’m changing my mind about…
• I realise that.. because..
• Now I understand why…
• I think the character… is like me because…
• I agree with… because…
• I don’t agree with … because..
• I think the author was trying to say.. because
• I’m beginning to think…

Inferring

• The story said… which made me think..
• I think… will happen because…
• When I read… it made me realise…
• I can tell … is … because…
• How the character acts tells me…
• How the character feels tells me..
• What the character says tells me.. 

Determining Importance

• The story was mostly about..
• The author is trying to tell us that..
• I learned..
• The important parts of the story were..
• This was interesting, but this was important..
• … is important because…

Summarising and Clarifying 

• The story takes place…
• This part was mostly about..
• In the beginning/middle/end..
• There is a problem when..
• It is solved when..
• The main characters are..

Skimming and Scanning

• As I scan this book, I already know ___about the topic/theme of the book so I think it might be about …
• Looking at the pictures in the book I think..
• I can see by the headings and pictures that it includes information about..
• Does anyone know what the word… means?