Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension Strategies ~ Tip Sheet

            We are now shifting our focus from decoding text to monitoring our comprehension of text.  Below we have listed several strategies we will be using in our classroom to support our comprehension of text.  Please review these strategies with your family and please use these characters and ideas as you read nightly with your child.  Happy reading!!! 

1)  Prince/Princess Storyteller

·         Using a “storyteller” voice, the “Prince/Princess Storyteller” retells the basic elements of story structure, including characters, settings, and plot episodes.  It is this character’s job to retell stories sequentially with relevant details.  This character must repeat the sequence of the story correctly for others.  

2)  Quincy/Quinn Questioner

·         This game show host character recognizes that there are two types of questions that readers can ask.  This character asks the kind of questions that are easy to answer with a short response.  This character promotes comprehension because students must understand what they have read in order to ask their peers knowledgeable questions.  Quincy and Quinn ask easy questions to find out “who was listening to the story.”  These questions can be answered as yes/no questions or with short answers.  

3)  Clara/Clarence Clarifier

·         This detective character thinks more deeply about text and self-monitors understanding by questioning and clarifying their comprehension as they read.  This helps students to make connections in the book rather than skipping over unknown words and ideas.  This character will recognize when he/she does not understand a part or word in the story or finds it confusing and will state “I don’t understand why…” or “I think I need clarification about something I just read.”   This character asks questions that require critical thinking.  The answers may or may not be found in the story.  The detective “solves the mysteries” of the unknown word or part by finding “clues” by reading before and after the word, interviewing people about unknown words, and using pictures.  

4)  Paula/Paul Predictor/The Wizard

·         Predicting is a strategy that helps students learn to set a purpose for reading a text and motivate them to keep reading to see if their predictions were correct.  Both wizards and fortune tellers can see into the future.  This character’s job is to predict what will happen next in the story.  This character may make predictions before a story, during the story, or after the story.  This character uses pictures and text to make predictions.     

5)  Sammy the Summarizer

·         Summarizing helps students concentrate on the main idea and supporting details of the text.  This character is a cowboy who “lassos” information about a story.  The information has to be short and to the point.  Yeehaw!  Sammy says, “The author wants us to know…” or “The big idea is…” 

6)      Sticky Notes

·         While students are reading, they should “stop & jot” their thinking about reading.  

o   Before reading, they may activate their prior knowledge by drawing a picture about what they already know about the topic or theme.

o   Before, during, or after reading, students may jot down their predictions.

o   During reading, students may write down words that they do not know or understand in context.

o   During or after reading, students may write a question that is a simple recall question or a critical thinking question.

o   After reading, students can write a short summary of the text.