Skills and Strategies
As beginning teachers it is important we have an understanding of the distinction between the two terms 'skills' and 'strategies.' As Afflerback et al. (2008) asserts there is a lack of consistency in how these two words are used and it seems to stem from some confusion between the two terms. Therefore, a definition for reading strategies and reading skills has been provided below. Futhermore, this website will also focus on several strategies teachers can encourage readers to use to help with their reading comprehension. These strategies have also been outlined on this page.
Reading strategies:
"Reading strategies are deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader's efforts to decode text, understand words, and construct meanings of text" (Aflerback et al., 2008, p. 368).
Reading skills:
Reading skills are automatic actions that result in decoding and comprehension with speed, efficiency, and fluency and usually occur without awareness of the components or meanings of text" (Aflerback et al., 2008, p. 368).
Activating prior knowledge
Teachers can help readers comprehend texts by getting them to use and build on their prior knowledge. This prior knowledge comes from children's real life experiences as well as from other texts (Winch et al., 2014). When readers use their prior knowledge it influences how well they will comprehend a text and it also enables them to make predictions about what they are reading (Winch et al., 2014). Successful comprehenders need prior knowledge about a text's topic, about the text-type and structure and the vocabulary a text contains (Winch et al., 2014). Teachers can help activate students' prior knowledge through brainstorming, predicting, concept maps and other visual representations, and by introducing the vocabulary within a text (Winch et al., 2014).
Predicting
Predicting involves a reader considering what a text may be about prior to reading or comtemplating during reading what may happen next (Winch et al., 2014). This strategy also gets readers to activate their prior knowledge to help generate these predictions (Duke & Pearson, 2002). During the process, teachers can encourage students to think about what characters may do based on their own experiences in similiar situations (Duke & Pearson, 2002). When using this strategy, it is also important for teachers to ensure students compare their predictions to what actually happens in the text. As Fielding, Anderson & Pearson (1990, as cited in Duke and Pearson, 2002) found when engaging students in prediction activities overall story understanding only occured when these predictions were compared with actual text ideas.
Questioning
Questioning is an accessible strategy that has traditionally been used on a large scale in classrooms (Duke & Pearson 2002; Konza, 2011) It is a comprehension strategy that can be used before, during and after reading (Duke & Pearson, 2002). This strategy's effectiveness is determined entirely by the teacher's capacity to use it for maxiumum benefit (Konza, 2011). Teachers can do the following when adopting this strategy.
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Compile a list of questions that can be used before reading.
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Get students to find answers to questions during reading.
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Students can think of questions for other students to find.
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Quizzes
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Games
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Asking questions that draw on information from the text and illustrations.
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Asking both literal and inferential questions.
(Winch et al., 2014)
Inferring
Inferring involves readers going beyond what is stated in the text and using their own stored knowledge combined with clues within the text to increase their understanding (Winch et al., 2014). Inferring can be done before, during or after the reading of a text (Winch et al., 2014). Through inferring teachers can get students to decide what the author is trying to say or draw conclusions about a character's motivations or feelings (Winch et al., 2014). Teachers can help students inferences by doing the following;
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Explicitly demostrating how to make inferences about a text.
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Discussing possible inferences whilst reading a text.
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By using an inferences chart.
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By asking questions that require students to make inferences about a text.
(Winch et al., 2014).
(Van Gorder, 2003)
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Monitoring
During reading to aid comprehension, readers should continually check whether what they are reading is making sense to them (Winch et al., 2014). One technique teachers could use with students to help them learn to self-monitor their comprehension is the 'think-aloud.' When a teacher is modelling a 'think-aloud' to students they make their thoughts about a text audible as they read (Duke & Pearson, 2002). Research has shown that students' reading comprehension is improved when they have the opportunity to practice think-alouds (Duke & Pearson, 2002).
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Visualising
When a reader visualises they create mental pictures as they read (Winch et al., 2014) This visualising may involve them imagining what a described setting or character looks like in a literacy text or the sequence of events in a factual text (Winch et al., 2014). It is like the reader is making a movie in their mind when they visualise as print gets transformed into images (Winch et al., 2014). Visualisation can be considered a effective comprehension strategy as it enables readers to monitor their understanding as they read (Winch et al., 2014). Teachers can encourage students to use this strategy by getting them to partake in the following below;
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Discussing how they visualise a character or setting.
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Drawing pictures of a text's characters.
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Creating 3D models of a book's settings.
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Creating timelines and diagrams depicting information from a factual text.
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Creating story maps of the events in a text.
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Performing dramatic representations of texts.
(Winch et al, 2014).
Summarising
Summarising involves students determining what is important information in a text and what is just minor details. When students summarise a text it helps with their comprehension as they are focusing their attention on key ideas and concepts (Winch et al., 2014). This strategy is particularly important for when students are reading factual texts (Winch et al., 2014). Research has demostrated that teaching students how to summarise text and then getting them to practice this strategy improves their overall comprehension of the content (Duke & Pearson, 2002). Teachers can help students learn how to use this strategy through the following;
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By showing students how to find the main ideas in a text.
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By allowing students to summarise in various ways.
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Students can retell, rewrite or draw significant information from a text.
(Winch et al., 2014).
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Responding to Text
When students respond to a text they draw on information from the text and add it to their existing knowledge (Winch et al., 2014). Giving students this opportunity to respond also allows them to evaluate the text within their own cultural understandings (Winch et al., 2014). Furthermore, this strategy helps students to come to an understanding that all texts can contain biases and are written from the point of view of the author (Winch et al., 2014). Teachers can encourage students to use this strategy through; discussion, classifying information, further research, recognising author's point of view and from retelling a text from a different viewpoint (Winch et al., 2014).
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