Reading Strategies
Connections link the reader from the book to what they know. Readers use background knowledge to make connections. There are three ways to make connections, text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. Text to self is a connection from the book you're reading to something that happened in your life. Text to text is a connection from the book you're reading to another passage,book, or even t.v. show that you have read or seen. Text to world is a connection from the book you're reading to something that has or is happening in the real world. Ways to start your connections can vary. Some are, this reminds me of..., or I remember one time when..., or this is like..., but there are many more. One time I have used this strategy is when I was reading this book called Monster by Walter Dean Myers. I made a text to self connection because it was talking about a crime and I've been robbed before. So it connects to my life.
Another strategy is Asking Questions. While you read ask questions to yourself. If you don't understand something ask questions, think to yourself, hmm, why did this happen, why did this lead to this. Asking questions will lead to more answers and to more questions. Asking questions will help you to understand what you don't know about the book you're reading. One time I used this strategy was when I was reading the book Monster. At first it sounded confusing but then I said."Why did Steve agree with King?", and asking more questions helped me understand it more. I also ask questions when I read The Stranger, by Albert Camus, because It is a really confusing book. So often with this book I have to ask myself questions like, " Why did Meursault shoot the Arab?"
An interesting strategy is looking for Character Traits. While you are reading pay attention to the characters. Really look at the characters as you read. Watch the characters as if they were real real people. Character traits are attributes that a character has. They can be physical or they are often like adjectives. Some ways to find out traits are by thinking to yourself, what does the character say or do, what does he think or feel, how does he look, how does the character make you feel, or what do other characters think or say about that character. For example some traits can be intelligent, athletic, huge, stocky and many more. One time when I used this strategy was when I was reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. We had to describe one of the characters and I followed these guidelines. So I did what this said to do and we were able to describe Meg as stubborn. I also applied this strategy to The Stranger and I was able to determine Meursault as careless.
One good thing to do is follow these five steps.
1:Previw the title and sub titles.Look at the pictures if there are any. Ask yourself? What will this book or story be about?
2:Read the passage one section at a time.
3:Think as you read, stop after each paragraph or section, ask am I getting this? What is the main idea of this section?
4:Take notes as you read.
5:Share your ideas about what you read with a partner.
1:Previw the title and sub titles.Look at the pictures if there are any. Ask yourself? What will this book or story be about?
2:Read the passage one section at a time.
3:Think as you read, stop after each paragraph or section, ask am I getting this? What is the main idea of this section?
4:Take notes as you read.
5:Share your ideas about what you read with a partner.
A very important strategy is summarizing. When we summarize we locate and understand what the passage is mainly about. We take the whole passage and put It in about one paragraph.We take notes while reading. You have to determine the authors purpose and say If the passage was wrote to entertain, to persuade or to inform the reader of something. You have to pull out who, what, when ,where and why? Use notes to identify main points. Underline and highlight important words and phrases, don't highlight the whole dang story. Just highlight the important things. Summarize objectively, just say what it was about, don't add your own opinion. We do summaries to tell that we understand what we are reading. For example, the book I'm reading is War of The Worlds. So far it's about a meteorite falling on Earth and everyone in town came and saw. Everyone then left except the main character and when he was alone an alien came out of the meteorite and he ran as fast as possible. I made thirty-five pages into a couple of sentences. This is the key information of what I read. When I am having trouble reading The Stranger, I often summarize the chapters so I can get the most important idea out of each chapter.
Here are Steps to identify the topic:
1. Look at the title.
2. Look at the first and last paragraph.
3. Ask yourself, "What is discussed through the whole section?"
4. Look at the captions, pictures, words in bold and the headings for clues to the topic.
5. What do they all have in common?
1. Look at the title.
2. Look at the first and last paragraph.
3. Ask yourself, "What is discussed through the whole section?"
4. Look at the captions, pictures, words in bold and the headings for clues to the topic.
5. What do they all have in common?
Monitoring comprehension? What is monitoring you might say? When you monitor something you watch closely for purposes of control, to keep track of, and check continually. In relation to monitoring comprehension, It is the ability of a reader to be aware while reading whether the text is making sense or not.
After you finish reading, ask yourself these questions to make sure you are monitoring?
1: Was the piece easy or hard to read?
2: Did you understand everything you read?
3: Was there anything that didn't make any sense?
4: Did all of the information fit in?
5: Did it have any inconsistencies?
Good readers always think about whether the text is making sense while reading.
These are some Fix-up-strategies for you:
1: Reread(the sentence or paragraph)
2: Read ahead then come back
3: Adjust your reading rate(you might be reading to fast to understand the passage; slow down, It is not a race)
4: Think about your purpose of reading it
5: Stop and check your understanding of the piece or passage
6: Use context(If you do not understand a word, use context clues)
Students who use this strategy and are good at using it know when they understand what they read and when they do not. If you come to a problem when you don't understand a passage or something, you will use other strategies to solve or fix it.
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:
1: Be aware of what they do and do not understand
2: Apply strategies to fix problems while reading
Try to fill out this monitoring organizer after reading:
1: I reread information to better understand about:
2: I made notes about the five W's and H:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
3:I found this new information the most interesting or surprising to me:
4: How did you find this information?
5: What connections can you make? What do you think or fell about the information? Does the information mean anything to you?
The Stranger is a very confusing novel. I have to monitor all the time and usually I have to because I don't understand most of the what it is saying. I have to reread, check if it makes sense to me, and check when I do understand and when I don't. I have to reread so I can understand it, like sometimes I don't understand the feelings of Meursault but when I monitor and reread, It helps me a lot. This strategy is very useful when you are reading a confusing novel or passage.
After you finish reading, ask yourself these questions to make sure you are monitoring?
1: Was the piece easy or hard to read?
2: Did you understand everything you read?
3: Was there anything that didn't make any sense?
4: Did all of the information fit in?
5: Did it have any inconsistencies?
Good readers always think about whether the text is making sense while reading.
These are some Fix-up-strategies for you:
1: Reread(the sentence or paragraph)
2: Read ahead then come back
3: Adjust your reading rate(you might be reading to fast to understand the passage; slow down, It is not a race)
4: Think about your purpose of reading it
5: Stop and check your understanding of the piece or passage
6: Use context(If you do not understand a word, use context clues)
Students who use this strategy and are good at using it know when they understand what they read and when they do not. If you come to a problem when you don't understand a passage or something, you will use other strategies to solve or fix it.
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:
1: Be aware of what they do and do not understand
2: Apply strategies to fix problems while reading
Try to fill out this monitoring organizer after reading:
1: I reread information to better understand about:
2: I made notes about the five W's and H:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
3:I found this new information the most interesting or surprising to me:
4: How did you find this information?
5: What connections can you make? What do you think or fell about the information? Does the information mean anything to you?
The Stranger is a very confusing novel. I have to monitor all the time and usually I have to because I don't understand most of the what it is saying. I have to reread, check if it makes sense to me, and check when I do understand and when I don't. I have to reread so I can understand it, like sometimes I don't understand the feelings of Meursault but when I monitor and reread, It helps me a lot. This strategy is very useful when you are reading a confusing novel or passage.
Predicting, inferring what is the difference is what you might be saying. Infer is to deduce or conclude information from reasoning and evidence rather than from explicit statements. It is to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises.
You can infer by combining background knowledge with clues provided by the text to form a new idea.
BK (background knowledge) + TC (text clues) = I (inferring)
Ask yourself: I infer that....
I think.......
Maybe it means....
I am guessing that....
I predict....
Example: I can infer that the little boy is going to die since his mother has no job and can't feed them, he will die of starvation because starvation can cause death.
Basically when you infer you are concluding by reasoning or making an educated guess.
Predicting is a statement about the way things will happen in the future, often but not always based on experience or knowledge. Prediction is a statement you make about what you think will happen in the future
Example: I think that the little boy will live and find an orphanage to live in and he will eat all he wants.
You can infer by combining background knowledge with clues provided by the text to form a new idea.
BK (background knowledge) + TC (text clues) = I (inferring)
Ask yourself: I infer that....
I think.......
Maybe it means....
I am guessing that....
I predict....
Example: I can infer that the little boy is going to die since his mother has no job and can't feed them, he will die of starvation because starvation can cause death.
Basically when you infer you are concluding by reasoning or making an educated guess.
Predicting is a statement about the way things will happen in the future, often but not always based on experience or knowledge. Prediction is a statement you make about what you think will happen in the future
Example: I think that the little boy will live and find an orphanage to live in and he will eat all he wants.
