1. Comprehension Strategies That Work

2.  Monitoring for meaning  Using and creating schema  Asking questions  Determining importance  Using sensory and emotional images  Inferring (Predicting)  Synthesizing

3.  It is important to remember that one strategy is not inherently more difficult than another. Instead it is the difficulty of the text in which students apply the strategies that makes comprehension more difficult.  In the same classroom students will study the same strategy but apply it in different levels and genres.

4.  Research supports teaching the strategies one at a time but in a cumulative fashion. In other words, teach monitoring for meaning first but once you teach asking questions, continually refer back to monitoring for meaning.  Maybe the best way to think of this is depending on the type of text your students are reading they may need to “turn up or down the volume” of the strategies they are using.

5.  Schools or teachers who wish to focus on each strategy for a longer period of time (six to nine weeks) might think of assigning three or four strategies to each grade band – K-1, 2-3, 4-5. This way students have had an in- depth experience with each strategy.

6.  Two other factors are vital: ◦ Time to Read ◦ Time to Talk

7.  Good readers carry on an inner conversation with themselves when they read.  Nothing enhances comprehension more than talking about what we read.  Talking about books builds a community of learners.  Students can’t get away with being passive participants when they are the ones doing the thinking.

8.  Groups of 5 or 6  Each group will be given a reading comprehension topic  Spend time reading research and best practices for teaching comprehension based on your topic  Decide how you are going to teach what you learn to the entire group  Make sure you support what you think with evidence from the text  If reading includes lessons for teaching strategies, pick the one you think is best to teach the rest us Plan for the Day