What is reading strategies

Reading Strategies - Reading Horizons

The English language is complex. This statement won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has taught emergent readers or English language learners and attempted to explain the structure of our language. Unfortunately, many adults also struggle with understanding and explaining English and sometimes resort to telling students that memorization is the only way to hold on to all those confusing words.

Learning to read is challenging for many students and is even more so when the process is unclear. Without effective reading strategies, many students struggle and a large percentage will be left behind when they are unable to acquire the skills necessary to read grade-level materials.

View our list of strategies to learn more about how you can apply them in your classroom ›

In America, approaches for teaching reading strategies have existed since the 1600s when the New England Primer was published for the American Colonies followed by Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book in 1783. Strategies for reading have existed for almost as long but without agreement as to the most effective methods of instruction. There are now so many types of strategies that it’s common for teachers and parents to feel overwhelmed. Fortunately, there has been a great deal of research, as well as substantial evidence from classrooms, to identify the reading strategies and instructional components that produce the best reading outcomes. Reading strategies is the broad term used to describe the planned and explicit actions that help readers translate print to meaning. Strategies that improve decoding and reading comprehension skills benefit every student, but are essential for beginning readers, striving readers, and English Language Learners. Within the last two decades, significant progress has been made in determining the most effective strategies for reading instruction.

Past is Present by the American Antiquarian Society blog

Essential Elements of Reading Instruction

In 2000, the findings of an analysis of more than 100,000 reading studies was published by the National Reading Panel (NRP). This panel concluded that there are five essential elements of effective reading instruction, commonly known as the “Five Pillars of Reading”. These pillars include phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies.

These elements are called pillars because the research identified them as the foundations for building strong reading skills. The NRP also included recommendations for effective reading strategies which included:

• Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
• Systematic phonics instruction/word study
• Tips for improving fluency and increasing comprehension

The core components of Structured Literacy include:

• Phonology (Sound structure) – Phonological awareness involves the ability to recognize, produce, and manipulate the sounds of speech including rhymes, segmentation, and deletion.
• Sound-Symbol Association (Phonics) – The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters and letter combinations represent the sounds of spoken language and that letters are blended to form words.
• Syllable Instruction – Each of the six basic syllable types is taught explicitly to determine the sound of the vowel in the syllable and where multisyllabic words should be divided.
• Morphology – Instruction involves the study of base words, roots, and affixes to help students build knowledge regarding the meaning of words should be divided.
• Syntax – The sequence and function of words in a sentence that convey meaning including grammar and language conventions
• Semantics – Instruction includes the comprehension of written language through the study of word meanings and phrases.

Using evidence-based reading strategies provided by a trained and knowledgeable instructor has been demonstrated to be the most effective method of supporting instruction and intervention. Implementing these strategies can make a tremendous difference for readers and those who are committed to improving reading outcomes.

Components of Reading Instruction for Striving Readers

Significant contributions to a greater understanding of effective reading support have also come from science. With MRI and PET technology, researchers now have the ability to compare the brain functions of striving readers with those of good readers. The results of many neurological studies reliably show that the brains of those with dyslexia and other print-based disabilities often do not process language as efficiently and require specific reading strategies to “wire” the brain for print.

The approach that has proven the most effective for struggling readers is called Structured Literacy and includes some of the same elements identified by the National Reading Panel. Structured Literacy is guided by several main principles: instruction is systematic, cumulative, and explicit, and the instructor adapts instruction to meet the needs of the student.

Top 7 Reading Strategies & Techniques To Use in Class

Learning how to read is one of life's greatest pleasures. Students need this important skill to advance through each grade and eventually into college or the workplace. In the long run, they'll develop a love for reading that benefits them throughout their entire lives.

But what happens to students who wrestle with their reading skills?

Reading strategies and techniques can help students to become excellent readers during any school year. Through active reading and other methods, kids can increase their vocabulary and proficiency. Reading techniques benefit struggling students and offer them constructive ways to get a better grasp on learning how to read. 

We've outlined seven reading fluency strategies to reduce students' stress, build their confidence, increase comprehension and help them learn from older kids.

Understanding reading strategies

Reading strategies are specific procedures that help students look at printed words and interpret their meaning. Learners improve their comprehension, understand what they've read and advance their reading skills into high school and beyond.

There are several effective reading strategies designed to boost students' understanding of the written word:

1. Making connections — Connect new words with students’ prior knowledge and favorite hobbies, activities or places they've visited. Use texts that relate to world issues to provide students with another way to deepen their reading comprehension.

2. Inferencing— When reading the text, students take their past knowledge and arrive at a conclusion based on the clues they receive from what they've read.

3. Synthesizing — Students combine new information with their prior knowledge to formulate a new thought or idea.

Instructional strategies ensure students receive the best learning outcomes.

Skills required for reading comprehension

Most people look at reading as a basic skill learned in elementary school. However, reading encompasses much more than knowing how to pronounce words correctly. It involves reading comprehension skills and overall understanding.

Students who continue to struggle with comprehension difficulties may fight to cope with:

• Poor vision
• Hearing loss
• Decoding problems
• Loss of concentration
• Learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, ADD or ADHD
• The inability to understand what specific words mean on their own or when used in a sentence

There is help available to students so that they can learn how to read effectively.

Here's a list of six reading comprehension skills that teachers can use to help their students develop these abilities:

1. Decoding is a foundational reading skill that uses phonetics to understand meaning. Students begin by pronouncing words without having seen how it's spelled. Building phonological awareness facilitates the use of rhyming, sounds, and songs, which can in turn help students use decoding strategies.
2. Building vocabulary is a key component in supporting learners as they build their comprehension skills. Practice new words with students to increase their vocabulary. Kids gain confidence in their reading abilities when they learn how to pronounce and spell unfamiliar words.
3. Reading fluency. The greatest obstacle to fluency is word recognition. It can take several tries before a student recognizes a word and knows its meaning. Encourage your students to read books often to build their reading fluency.
4. Putting words together to write a cohesive sentence remains a top skill. Frequent lessons in sentence structure and grammar reinforce reading and writing skills.
5. Memory and focused attention. Help students improve their memory and attention through classroom games and activities. Since kids love educational games, they're likely to progress much faster.
6. Background knowledge. Past experiences and prior knowledge are great building blocks in helping students to get the gist of a word or phrase. Encourage kids to build their knowledge through reading, learning more about art, watching TV shows and having meaningful conversations with parents.

Equip your students with the above skills to support their reading comprehension progress.

Best strategies for reading improvement

There are lots of reading comprehension strategies you can use to help students improve their reading skills. It's vital to each student's success to grow their reading and annotation skills as they climb each grade level. 

You can use one or more strategies and key details to enhance each student's learning experience:

1. Assign reading partners, cross-grade or peers

Pair up two kids from different grade levels to work together. They can help each other improve reading comprehension regardless of their grade level. Both older and younger students benefit from this arrangement.

Younger kids can learn something new from older students. They also get to see how much their reading can improve in higher grade levels.

Older kids who struggle with reading feel less pressure to read books from higher grades when they're partnered with little kids. It's a great way to increase reading fluency.

2. Visualize reading passages

The key ingredient for visualizing passages is to encourage students to create mental pictures or movies in their minds. They can take their prior knowledge and combine it with their own visualizations. Kids may identify with characters and the story’s world.  

Use picture books or text with descriptive language to promote the use of this technique. Be sure to ask students questions such as:

• "What did you see as you read the passage?"
• “What do you think [character] looks like?”
• “Can you draw a picture of the story’s setting?”

3. Try reading aloud

Reading aloud promotes fluency and literacy. As teachers and parents read to children, it builds their language development and communication skills.

It's easy to keep kids engaged as they pay attention to their teacher's articulation and cadence. Be sure to involve your students by inviting them to comment on the story and ask questions.

4. Follow up reading with class discussions

After you finish reading a book to your students, start a class discussion to help students retain what they've learned. By directing comments and questions to students it encourages them to participate.

Here are a few tips to consider when following up with class discussions:

• Invite students to write notes for the discussion. They may provide interesting points on why they agree or disagree with the topic.
• Encourage students to jot down the things that they don't understand so that you can clarify these points for them.
• Ask a thought-provoking question or series of questions to promote active class participation.
• Break the class into smaller groups to promote deep conversations among students.

5. Do some choral reading

Choral reading occurs when teachers and students read a passage together. Students learn how to pronounce tough words, boost confidence, increase vocabulary and improve reading fluency.

Choral reading works very well when teachers pair two students together. Each student takes turns reading out loud while the other pupil actively listens. This scenario helps struggling students when they're working with a strong reader, and a 2007 study showed that partner reading improves reader fluency.

6. Create reading quizzes

Reading quizzes show teachers where students’ strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to reading comprehension.

When creating interactive or print quizzes, you can use fill-in-the-blank, true/false or multiple choice test questions. Pose a variety of question types to challenge your students without making the quiz impossible to complete.

7. Play question the text

Use the "Question the text" method to keep kids interested in reading. Get them to ask questions, especially if they don't understand what they've read. Asking questions about the text brings meaning to the reading material. Students can also form their own opinions about the passage or text.

Track progress and seek areas for improvement

Make notes of each student's progress to gain a better sense of kids' strengths and weaknesses. This helps you address problems immediately. You can adjust lesson plans to accommodate and fix learning gaps and improve reading comprehension skills.

The digital tools outlined below simplify tracking student progress:  

• Crowdsignal helps teachers create quizzes, questions and online polls. Students finish all assignments on tablets or computers. Once completed, teachers generate reports to determine any gray areas that require attention.
• Formative allows educators to assign activities to students, receive results, and track progress in real-time.
• Biblionasium provides teachers with access to the number of books that students have read. Educators can inspire kids to read and support active discussions among students.

There are a number of terrific ways to ensure teachers can successfully track students’ progress. These digital tools make tracking and assessments a quick and efficient use of time. 

As you teach, keep encouraging students to ask questions and challenge themselves as they read. When you work with them to build comprehension, you’re also working with them to build a love of reading!

Prodigy English is a brand-new game-based learning experience that helps students build key reading and language skills in a world of their own. As they play, you'll be able to track their progress and achievement.

Library Navigator: Strategies for Reading

Strategy is a set of methods arranged in a certain sequence and aimed at reaching certain targets.

Strategy reading - the path and program of action of the reader. Selected for a specific purpose text. The term was born at the dawn of psycholinguistics in the works of K. Goodman and P. Kolers.

Strategies readings can be used in discussions and commented readings, in library lessons, become part of the interactive elements cultural event. nine0006

1. Classification of reading strategies:

2. Description of reading strategies

Materials for scripting events using reading strategies:

methodical recommendations for reading aloud [Electronic resource]: website // Samara Regional children's library. – Access mode: http://www.sodb.ru/node/486.

tricks semantic reading [Electronic resource]: website // Methodical workshop "Development and implementation of the semantic reading strategy in the educational space of the school on stage of the introduction of the Federal State Educational Standard LLC. – Access mode: https://sites.google.com/site/ucitelamv/home/klassifikacia-priemov-smyslovogo-ctenia. nine0006

Development semantic reading in the context of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standards of the OO [Electronic resource]: a collection of abstracts international scientific and practical conference. April 7, 2016 / State autonomous educational institution of additional professional education "Institute for the Development of Education and Social Technologies". - Kurgan, 2016. - 156 p. - Access mode: http://kna-s6.edu.27.ru/files/uploads/docs/smuslchten/oput/megdunarodnaya_nauchno_prakticheskaya_konferentsiya.pdf.

Romanicheva, E. S. Reader. Reading. Book: dictionary / E.S. Romanicheva, G. V. Prantsova. – M.: Bibliomir, 2018. – 208 p. nine0006

Smetannikova, N. N. Education of the reader in a culture-creating model of education [Electronic resource]: website // Interregional Center for Library Cooperation. - Access mode: http://www.mcbs.ru/files/File/smetannikova(1). pdf.

Strategies reading [Electronic resource]: site // Solnechny. – Access mode: http://www.selezneva-lichnost.ru/index.php/strategii-chteniya.

Reading with stops [Electronic resource]: blog // There is happiness! – Access mode: http://bdb100ktn.blogspot.com/2015/02/blog-post_27.html. nine0006

LIST SOURCES

1.

Zagashev AND ABOUT. Reading in the library. Strategy "Reading with stops" / I. O. Zagashev. - M.: Chistye Prudy, 2010. - 31 p.

2.

Prantsova GV, Modern reading strategies: theory and practice. meaningful reading and work with text: textbook / G. V. Prantsova, E.S. Romanichev. - 2nd ed., correct and additional - M. : FORUM, 2015. - 368 p.

3.

Read+. Preparation of teachers and librarians for the implementation of an interdisciplinary program "Fundamentals of semantic reading and working with text": textbook-method. allowance / auth.-stat. and scientific editor T. G. Galaktionova. – M.: RSHBA, 2018. – 164 p. nine0006

R. S. Sakharenkova

Methods for teaching the strategy of semantic reading and working with text

systematization and speed of processing put theorists and practitioners of education in front of the need to develop new approaches to teaching reading.

Issues:

- children have a low reading speed, as a result of which they spend a lot of time preparing homework,

- they often do not understand the meaning of what they read due to reading errors and incorrect intonation,

- they cannot extract the necessary information from the proposed text, highlight the main thing in what they read,

- find it difficult to briefly retell the content,

- when doing independent work, tests of different levels, students make mistakes due to misunderstanding of the wording of the task,

- rarely refer to cognitive texts.

That is, a serious contradiction arises: on the one hand, the modern world brings down a huge amount of information on us, on the other hand, our children do not read much, do not have semantic reading skills, and do not know how to work with information.

It is not so important to read a lot, it is much more necessary to process what you have read in your mind in a quality manner. Having comprehended and structured the text in a certain way, it is much easier to convey its content and learn the main thing. nine0006

The current interdisciplinary curriculum, provided for by the new educational standards, is the program "Fundamentals of semantic reading and working with text." The program is aimed at forming and developing the foundations of reading competence necessary for students to implement their future plans, including continuing education and self-education, preparing for work and social activities. Today, reading, along with writing and computer skills, is one of the basic skills that allow you to work productively and communicate freely with different people. Reading is a universal skill: it is something taught and something through which one learns. As scientists have established, about 200 factors affect student performance. Factor #1 is reading skill, which has a far greater impact on academic performance than all of them combined. Research shows that in order to be competent in all subjects and later in life, a person needs to read 120-150 words per minute. This becomes a necessary condition for the success of working with information. Reading is the foundation of all educational outcomes. nine0006

Federal standards include in the meta-subject results of OOP mastering as a mandatory component "mastering the skills of semantic reading of texts of various styles and genres in accordance with the goals and objectives."

Semantic reading is a type of reading aimed at understanding the semantic content of the text by the reader. For semantic understanding, it is not enough just to read the text, it is necessary to evaluate the information, respond to the content. nine0006

In the concept of universal educational activities (Asmolov A.G., Burmenskaya G.V., Volodarskaya I.A., etc.) actions of semantic reading are distinguished, associated with:

tasks;

- definition of primary and secondary information;

- formulating the problem and the main idea of ​​the text.

For semantic understanding, it is not enough just to read the text, it is necessary to evaluate the information, to respond to the content. The concept of "text" should be interpreted broadly. It can include not only words, but also visual images in the form of diagrams, figures, maps, tables, graphs. nine0006

Since reading is a meta-subject skill, its constituent parts will be in the structure of all universal educational activities:

- personal UUD includes reading motivation, learning motives, attitude towards oneself and school;

- into regulatory UUD - acceptance by the student of a learning task, arbitrary regulation of activity;

- in cognitive UUD - logical and abstract thinking, working memory, creative imagination, concentration, vocabulary volume. nine0006

- in communicative UUD - the ability to organize and implement cooperation and cooperation with a teacher and peers, adequately convey information, display subject content.

The diagram shows groups of meta-subject results related to semantic reading.

To work with the text at each stage, the reader chooses his own strategies. Learning strategies are a set of actions that a learner takes in order to facilitate learning, make it more effective, efficient, faster, more enjoyable, aim and bring learning activities closer to their own goals.0006

The term "reading strategies" was born at the dawn of psycholinguistics, and its appearance is associated with the work of Kenneth Goodman and Peter Kolers (70s). (slide 14) The most general definition of J. Bruner became fundamental for all subsequent works: “A strategy is a certain way of acquiring, storing and using information that serves to achieve certain goals in the sense that it should lead to certain results. ”

In case of success, the student remembers the ways of his actions, operations, resources used, transfers the strategy to other situations, makes it universal. The number of strategies and the frequency of their use are individual. nine0006

Purpose: to form the ability to purposefully read the educational text. Ask questions and lead group discussions.

1. Update. Reception "Associative Bush": the teacher writes a keyword or title of the text, students express their associations one by one, the teacher writes down. The use of this technique allows you to update knowledge, motivate subsequent activities, activate the cognitive activity of students, set them up for work. nine0006

2. Pupils silently read a short text or part of a text, stopping at the indicated places.

3. The teacher asks a problematic question on what has been read.

4. The answers of several students are discussed in class.

5. The students make an assumption about the further development of the event.

Purpose: to form the ability to highlight the main thing, summarize what was read in the form of a thesis, ask problematic questions. nine0006

1. The students silently read the text or part of the text chosen by the teacher.

2. The teacher puts the students in pairs and gives clear instructions. Each student alternately performs two roles: speaker - reads and summarizes the content in the form of one thesis; the respondent listens to the speaker and asks him two substantive questions. Next comes the role reversal.

3. The teacher invites all students to the discussion.

Purpose: to form the ability to work independently with printed information, formulate questions, work in pairs.

1. Students silently read the proposed text or part of the text chosen by the teacher.

2. The students work in pairs and discuss which keywords should be highlighted in the reading. (Which words occur most often in the text? How many times? Which words are in bold? Why?

If you read the text aloud, how would you make it clear that this sentence is the main thing? It is about highlighting the phrase voice, which hides an unobtrusive but reliable memorization.)

3. One of the students formulates a question using key words, the other answers it.

4. Discuss key words, questions and answers in class. Correction.

Purpose: to form the ability to ask questions while reading, critically evaluate information, compare what is read with one's own experience.

1. The teacher instructs the students to divide the notebook into two parts. nine0006

2. In the process of reading, students should write down on the left side the moments that struck, surprised, reminded of some facts, caused any associations; on the right - write a concise commentary: why this particular moment surprised you, what associations it caused, what thoughts it prompted.

Goal: to form the ability to read thoughtfully, evaluate information, formulate the author's thoughts in your own words.

The teacher gives the students the task to write information in the margins with icons according to the following algorithm:

• V Familiar information
• + New information
• - I thought (thought) otherwise
• ? This interested me (surprised), I want to know more

The essence of semantic reading strategies is that the strategy is related to choice, functions automatically at the unconscious level and is formed in the course of the development of cognitive activity. Teaching reading strategies includes the acquisition of skills:

- Distinguishing types of message content - facts, opinions, judgments, assessments; nine0006

- recognition of the hierarchy of meanings within the text - the main idea, theme and its components;

- own understanding - the process of reflective perception of the cultural meaning of information.

Mastering strategies occurs mainly in groups or pairs, which allows students to develop not only speech, but also communicative competence.

The strategy of semantic reading provides understanding of the text by mastering the techniques of mastering it at the stages before reading, during reading and after reading. Working with any text involves three stages: pre-text activity, text and post-text activity

Stage 1. Work with text before reading.

1. Anticipation (anticipation, anticipation of the upcoming reading). Determining the semantic, thematic, emotional orientation of the text, highlighting its heroes by the title of the work, the name of the author, key words, illustrations preceding the text based on the reader's experience.

2. Setting the objectives of the lesson, taking into account the general (educational, motivational, emotional, psychological) readiness of students for work. nine0006

Purpose of stage 1: development of the most important reading skill, anticipation, that is, the ability to guess, predict the content of the text by title, author's name, illustration.

Methods of pre-text activity:

If earlier, according to the traditional method, only one task “Read the text” was given at the stage of pre-reading the text, and the main attention was paid to control of reading comprehension, now we know that the better organized the stage of pre-reading, the easier it is for the student to read the text and the higher the result achieved by him. nine0006

Pre-text orienting techniques are aimed at staging reading and, consequently, at choosing the type of reading, updating previous knowledge and experience, concepts and vocabulary of the text, as well as creating motivation for reading.

Most common tricks:

• Brainstorming
• Glossary
• "Landmarks of anticipation"
• Preliminary Questions
• "Dissection questions".

Brainstorming, Headline Forecast. nine0511