Reading Strategies and

Home Reading Tips

Reading Strategies

Make Predictions

Predictions encourage active reading and keeping students interested, whether or not the predictions are correct.  Incorrect predictions can signal a misunderstanding that needs to be revisited.  Instruct students:

• Look at the pictures, table of contents, chapter headings, maps, diagrams and features.  What subjects are in the book?

• Write down predictions about the text.  During reading, look for words or phrases from those predictions.

• While reading, revise the predictions or made new ones.

Visualize

Many students think visually, using shapes, spatial relationships, movement, and colours, and can benefit greatly from this strategy.  Instruct students:

• Imagine a fiction story taking place as if it were a movie.  Imagine the characters' features.  Picture the plot in time and space.

• Imagine processes and explanations happening visually.  Use nouns, verbs, and adjectives to create pictures, diagrams, or other mental images.

• Use graphic organizers to lay out information.  Make sketches or diagrams on scrap paper.

Ask and Answer Questions

Having students form their own questions helps them recognize confusion and encourages active learning.  Instruct students:

• Before reading, think about the subject based on the title, chapter heads, and visual information.  Make note of anything you are curious about.

• While reading, pause and write down any questions.  Be sure to ask questions if there is confusion.

• Look for the answer while reading.  Pause and write down the answers.  Were all the questions answered? Could the answer come from other sources?

Retell and Summarize

Relating the text in students' own words clears up language issues.  Retelling challenges them to aim for complete retention.  Summarization allows students to discriminate between main ideas and minor details.  Instruct students:

• During reading, note the main ideas or events.  Put a check mark in the book or write a note to point out a main idea.

• At the end of chapters or sections, review the information or story.  Note main ideas or events and details that support them.

• After reading, retell or summarize the text.  Focus on the important points, and support them with relevant details.

• Refer to the book to check the retelling or summarization.

Connect the Text to Life Experiences, Other Texts, or Prior Knowledge

Connecting a text to students' experiences and knowledge helps students personalize the information.  It also helps students remember information when they link it to their lives.  Instruct students:

• Is the subject familiar?  Do the characters resemble familiar people?  Have you learned about the concept from school, home, or other experiences? 

• Is the style or genre familiar?  Does it resemble other texts?  Television shows, movies, and games can be considered "texts".

• Write down similarities between the current test and experiences, knowledge, or other texts.

Word-Attack Strategies

Word-attack strategies help students decode, pronounce, and understand unfamiliar words.  They help students attack words piece by piece or from a different angle.  Model and instruct students:

1. Use Picture Clues

• Look at the picture.

• Are there people, objects, or actions in the picture that might make sense in the sentence?

2.  Sound Out the Word

• Start with the first letter, and say each letter-sound out loud.

• Blend the sounds together and try to say the word.  Does the word make sense in the sentence?

3.  Look for Chunks in the Word

• Look for familiar letter chunks.  They may be sound/symbols, prefixes, suffixes, endings, whole words, or base words.

• Read each chunk by itself.  Then blend the chunks together and sound out the word.  Does that word make sense in the sentence?

4.  Connect to a Word You Know

• Think of a word that looks like the unfamiliar word.

• Compare the familiar word to the unfamiliar word.  Decide if the familiar word is a check or form of the unfamiliar word.

• Use the known word in the sentence to see if it makes sense.  If so, the meanings of the two words are close enough for understanding.

5.  Reread the Sentence

• Read the sentence more than once.

• Think about what word might make sense in the sentence.  Try the word to see if the sentence makes sense.

6.  Keep Reading

• Read past the unfamiliar word and look for clues.

• If the word is repeated, compare the second sentence to the first.  What word might make sense in both?

7.  Use Prior Knowledge

• Think about what you know about the subject of the book, paragraph, or sentence.

• Do you know anything that might make sense in the sentence?  Read the sentence with the word to see if it makes sense.

Home Reading Tips                                                                                      Back to the TOP

1. You can read the whole book to your child.

2. You can read one sentence, then your child can read one sentence.

3. Try reading it together at the same time.

4. You read it leaving out words your child can fill in.

5. You read one page and your child reads the next.

6. Your child reads the entire book.

Retelling the Story

Students need to understand story grammar.  Model how to retell a story or ask the five W's (who, what, where, when, why) to get your child to retell the important parts of the story.

• setting

• story sequence (plot)

• characters with names

• problems/situations and resolution

• ending

How to choose a "Just Right Book"

• The print is the right size.

• It is interesting

• Some places are smooth and some are choppy.

• You can explain it to another person.

• There are only a few words per page that you do not know.  You can use the five finger method.  Meaning if you have five errors as you start to read it is too hard.