The Basic Strategies of Reading
Skimming and scanning the text.
Sampling, predicting, confirming, understanding and correcting errors in meaning as they occur.
Reading parts of a text, changing reading speed, and questioning oneself during reading.
Effective use of comprehension strategies allow us to gain maximum understanding of the text.
These strategies work on an individual, small group or whole class platform and can be drawn out to suit the needs of any student at a time.
Skimming and scanning the text.
Sampling, predicting, confirming, understanding and correcting errors in meaning as they occur.
Reading parts of a text, changing reading speed, and questioning oneself during reading.
Effective use of comprehension strategies allow us to gain maximum understanding of the text.
These strategies work on an individual, small group or whole class platform and can be drawn out to suit the needs of any student at a time.
- Using and building on Prior knowledge-Prior knowledge comes from the past experiences with the world and with other texts. The knowledge about the text, the topic, the structure and the vocabulary can help the reader in their comprehension of the text in greater detail.
- Predicting- is making connections to the text using their prior knowledge about what the text contain and what would happen in the text. This strategy is mainly used on narrative texts, and the predictions are confirmed as the text is read.
- Questions and answers-by generating questions and finding answers as they read is an effective way of reading and it gives purpose to read and helps in comprehension.
- Inferring- combining what the text says with what the reader already knows to arrive at conclusions, generalisations,character motivations and feelings. Inferring enables readers to go beyond what is stated in the text and tap into their stored knowledge to increase their comprehension.
- Visualising- is creating mental images as they read. Helps to construct and monitor meaning as they read and to identify and correct miscues. For information or factual texts one can create mind maps or flow charts using this strategy.
- Summarising- focusing on key ideas and concepts. This strategy is important when reading factual texts to compare and verify the information.