English Language Development

Using Comprehension Strategies. Teaching children to use reading comprehension strategies
to help them understand and retain what they read was among the recommendations of a panel
convened by the federal Institute of Education Sciences to review the research on comprehension
instruction in kindergarten through grade three. (Shanahan, and others 2010, 5). The panel identified
six research-based strategies as important for reading comprehension in the primary grades. These,
and descriptions, are provided in figure 4.4.

Figure 4.4. Comprehension Strategies and Descriptions

Effective Strategy Description

Activating Prior Knowledge/

Predicting

Students think about what they already know and

use that knowledge in conjunction with other clues

to construct meaning from what they read or to

hypothesize what will happen next in the text. It is

assumed that students will continue to read to see if

their predictions are correct.

Questioning Students develop and attempt to answer questions

about the important ideas in the text while reading,

using words such as where or why to develop their

questions.

Visualizing Students develop a mental image of what is described

in the text.

Monitoring, Clarifying, and Fix Up Students pay attention to whether they understand

what they are reading, and when they do not,

they reread or use strategies that will help them

understand what they have read.

Drawing Inferences Students generate information that is important to

constructing meaning but that is missing from, or not

explicitly stated in, the text.

Summarizing/Retelling Students briefly describe, orally or in writing, the main

points of what they read.

Source

Excerpted from

Shanahan, Timothy, and others. 2010. Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade:

A Practice Guide (NCEE 2010-4038), p. 12-13. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and

Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

The panel noted that strategies are “intentional mental actions” and “deliberate efforts”
employed before, during, or after reading to enhance understanding of text and overcome
difficulties in comprehending (Shanahan, and others 2010, 11), and the panel contrasted strategy
use with completion of worksheets. Teachers should explain each strategy (including its purpose
and application), demonstrate its use with authentic text, and support students’ independent use.
Strategies can be used individually or in combination. Critically, the strategies themselves are not the
focus of instruction; gaining meaning of the text in hand is always the goal.

292 | Chapter 4 Grades 2 and 3