Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension Strategies help readers better understand text. We focus on these strategies during guided reading groups and shared reading. After we learn these strategies in class, we add these strategies to our CAFE menu for students to refer to during independent reading.

*Check for Understanding - stop frequently and check (monitor) whether they understand what they are reading.

*Back Up and Reread - Our favorite fix up strategy! When understanding breaks down, going back and rereading again more slowly and with more focus.

*Monitor and Fix Up - Does this make sense? If not, readers can summarize, adjust the reading rate, reread, read on to see if information becomes clear, skim and scan the selection, use pictures as clues.

*Retell a Story - Give an account of a story's key points focusing on sequence, characters, setting, and main ideas.

*Use Prior Knowledge to Connect with Text - Readers can make text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world connections.

*Make a Mental Picture or Mental Image - Good readers can make a picture in their mind or make a mind "movie" to visualize what is happening in the story.

*Ask Questions - Asking questions before, during, and after reading will help guide a reader.

*Make Predictions - What will happen next? Good readers look at the details and clues to predict what will happen next. Thinking ahead keeps good readers engaged.

*Infer and Support with Evidence - What is this author trying to tell me? Good readers use illustrations, clues from text, and background knowledge to make meaning of the selection.