What Are Reading Comprehension Strategies?

For LS3013: Library Materials for Children

by Judi Moreillon, Ph.D.

Texas Woman’s UniversitySchool of Library and Information Studies

“Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives.”

Richard Vacca

Schmoker, M. (2006). Results Now: How We can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, p. 51.

Reading Comprehension(S421stCL - Skills)

Strategies

In CS4TRC, I use the seven comprehension strategies outlined in Zimmermann and Hutchins’ book.

Understanding and creating metaphors is an example of the similarities and differences research-based instructional strategy.

The metaphor of the elephant is to help you learn the seven reading comprehension strategies in CS4TRC.

You can download a bookmark to support your learning. From this link, choose Web Supplement 2D in black and white or color: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/editions/webextras/moreillon09294/moreillon09294.cfm

You can download a bookmark to support your learning. From this link, choose Web Supplement 2D in black and white or color: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/editions/webextras/moreillon09294/moreillon09294.cfm

In this book, award-winning author-illustrator Ed Young provides a metaphor to help us learn reading comprehension strategies. Each part (and the whole) of the elephant can be viewed as a metaphor for each of seven reading comprehension strategies.

As stringy as a rope (tail – activating background knowledge)

Breezy as a fan (ears – using sensory images)

Sharp as a spear (tusks – questioning)

Wide as a cliff (head – making predictions and inferences)

Sturdy as a pillar (legs – determining main ideas)

Supple as a snake (trunk – using fix-up options)

But altogether the Something is….. an elephant (synthesizing)

Adapted from Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

“Ah, said White Mouse. “Now, I see. The Something is

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Activating and Building Background Knowledge

• Text-to-self

• Text-to-text

• Text-to-world Connections

Readers carry their background knowledge behind them like an elephant carries its tail. It backs up their comprehension with prior understandings.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Using Sensory Images

Engage all five senses in “visualization”

Although most humans get most of their sensory input through their eyes, using sensory images to support comprehension is best when it involves all of the senses. The elephant’s ears represent using sensory images.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Questioning

• Monitor comprehension through questioning

• Question the text and the author

The elephant uses its tusks to probe its environment; readers use questioning strategies to probe for meaning.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Making Predictions and Inferences

• Propel through the text

• Interpret and make meaning

Readers must use their heads to think as they make and use predictions and inferences to support comprehension.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Determining Main Ideas

• Sorting and prioritizing

• Main ideas and supporting details

Like the elephant’s legs hold up this weighty animal, main ideas are necessary to support a reader’s understanding of text. Determining main ideas is especially critical when readers are challenged by a plethora of information.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Using Fix-up Options

16 ways for readersto regain comprehension

An elephant uses its trunk to manipulate its environment. Readers, who struggle to make meaning, use fix-up options to regain comprehension.

The Metaphor of the Elephant

Synthesizing

Making meaning from multiple resources

Readers must synthesize their knowledge to make meaning. In the library environment that involves using multiple texts. Readers who can synthesize demonstrate that they can put the whole elephant together.

“The Mouse Moral:

Knowing in part may make fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.”

Illustration from Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

Works Cited

Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.

Moreillon, Judi. Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2007.

Young, Ed. Seven Blind Mice. New York: Philomel, 1992.Zimmermann, Susan, and Chryse Hutchins. 7 Keys to

Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.