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.

Use all these strategies to become better, more fluent readers. 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!