Elkhart Community Schools

1
Elkhart Community Schools
Top 10 Reading Strategies
2
Why have a K-12 emphasis on reading?
3
Language Development
Listening Speaking Reading Writing
4

Reading difficulties begin here..
Actual Differences in Quantity of Words Heard
In a typical hour, the average child would hear
Welfare
616 Words
Working Class
1,251 Words
Professional
2,153 Words
5
Did you know...
85 of ECSs students fall into the first two
categories - welfare - working class
6
Connection
Language
Reading
Thinking
7
Reading IS Thinking The purpose of reading is
understanding.
8
Strategic Thinking
9
Strategic Thinking
True comprehension goes beyond literal
understanding and involves the readers
interaction with text. If students are to become
thoughtful, insightful readers, they must extend
their thinking beyond a superficial understanding
of the text. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis
10
Why teach reading strategies?
Once thought of as the natural result of
decoding plus oral language, comprehension is now
viewed as a much more complex process involving
knowledge, experience, thinking and
teaching. (Linda Fielding and P. David Pearson,
1994)
11
What strategies should be taught?
Researchers identified strategies that proficient
readers use to construct meaning from text.
Pearson, Keene, Harvey, Goudvis, Robb and others
summarized these strategies. Elkhart Community
Schools Top 10 Reading Strategies are based on
the work of the above researchers.
12
Top 10 Reading Strategies

• Make Inferences Then Draw Conclusions
• Summarize and Synthesize
• Check Your Understanding
• Build Fluency

• Connect to the Text
• Ask Questions
• Expand Vocabulary
• Predict Prove
• Sense It
• Decide Whats Important

13
Strategy 1 Connect to the Text
Making Connections A Bridge From
the New to the Known Text to Self Text to
Text Text to World
14
Strategy 2 Ask Questions
Asking Questions The Strategy That
Propels Readers Forward Questioning is the
strategy that keeps readers engaged. When
readers ask questions, they clarify understanding
and forge ahead to make meaning. Asking
questions is at the heart of thoughtful
reading. Harvey and Goudvis
15
Strategy 3 Expand Vocabulary
The larger the readers vocabulary (either oral
or print), the easier it is to make sense of the
text. Report of the National Reading Panel
16
Strategy 4 Predict and Prove (Guess and Check)
Research suggests that when students make
predictions their understanding increases and
they are more interested in the reading
material. Fielding, Anderson, Pearson, Hanson
17
Strategy 5 Sense It
Visualizing A Tool to Enhance
Understanding Visualizing is a comprehension
strategy that enables readers to make the words
on a page real and concrete. Keene and Zimmerman
18
Strategy 6 Decide Whats Important
Thoughtful readers grasp essential ideas and
important information when reading. Readers must
differentiate between less important ideas and
key ideas that are central to the meaning of the
text. Harvey and Goudvis
19
Strategy 7 Make Inferences Then Draw
Conclusions
Inferring is at the intersection of taking what
is known, garnering clues from the text, and
thinking ahead to make a judgment, discern a
theme, or speculate about what is to
come. Harvey and Goudvis
20
Strategy 8 Summarize and Synthesize
The Evolution of Thought Synthesizing is putting
together separate parts into a new whole.a
process akin to working a jigsaw puzzle. Harvey
and Goudvis
21
Strategy 9 Check Your Understanding
If confusion disrupts meaning, readers need to
stop and clarify their understanding. Readers
may use a variety of strategies to fix up
comprehension when meaning goes awry. Harvey
and Goudvis
22
Strategy 10 Build Fluency
Fluency is important because it frees students
to understand what they read. Report of the
National Reading Panel
23
Reading Strategies
CAUTION! Although these strategies tend to be
introduced independently, readers rarely use
these in isolation when reading. These thoughts
interact and intersect to help readers make
meaning and often occur simultaneously during
reading. Harvey and Goudvis
24
Check Understanding
Build Fluency
Sense It
Ask Questions
Reading is Thinking
Connect To Text
Making Inferences/ Draw Conclusions
Decide Whats Important
Summarize/ Synthesize
Expand Vocabulary
Predict and Prove