Decoding strategies refer to the tools that expert readers use to read words that they do not already know. In the early stages of reading development, much of the time is spent trying to figure out each individual written word. The following decoding strategies will help students identify and read challenging words in print.

​Remember! While we learn these strategies separately – in order to master each one – many of them go hand in hand to help us become better readers. We need to practice all of them all the time to become experts readers.

• Start on the left: start at the left side of the word.

• Look for graphemes: hop to each grapheme (the letters that make up sounds) from left to right and say each sound.

• Blend the sounds: blend the sounds together to read the word.

• Chop the word into syllables: break the word down into syllables and read each one.

• Look for small words in the big word: separate the base word from the prefix or suffix.

• Check if it makes sense: reread the sentence and see if it makes sense.

Reading is more than saying the words or getting from the beginning of the book to the end.  To be expert readers, children need to be able to understand (or comprehend) the text they are reading.  Research has shown there are strategies that expert readers can share with children as we read that will help them gain more understanding and become experts themselves.

The following are the comprehension strategies that we learn at school.

Making Connections

When readers fit what they read into what they already know or have experienced, they are using their schema. As you read to or with a child try to:

• Make connections to yourself

  • Does this remind you of something that happened to you?

  • Does this make you think of a time when…?

  • Can you relate to…?

• Make connections to other texts (not just written, but songs, movies, etc.)

  • Does this remind you of another book you read?

  • Is this part just like…?

  • Is this similar to…?

• Make connections to the world

  • Does this remind you of something that happened in the world?

  • Is this like…?

  • Do you know this…?

Predictions

When expert readers are reading texts they are sometimes able to predict what might come next.  They are able to do this because of the connections they have made to the book already and their ability to guess how what they’ve already read will affect what will happen next.

​

Visualizing

Expert readers use their senses to help them imagine what they might smell, hear, see, taste, or feel as they read.  This allows them to gain deeper understanding of the text.

• What does the movie in your mind look like?

• What kinds of things do you imaging hearing; smelling; tasting; feeling; seeing?

Questioning

When readers question the text before, during, and after they read, they attend more closely to the text.

• Before reading

  • What do you think will happen?

  • Why do you suppose…?

• During reading

  • Why do you suppose…?

  • What do you think?

  • I wonder why?

  • How come…?

• After reading

  • What would have happened if…?

  • I wonder why the author…?

  • I wonder where we could look to find out more about…?

It is important for readers to understand some of the most interesting questions we have aren’t always answered in the story!

​Inferring

More than simple predicting, inferring happens when readers can take what they know and what is written in the book to “read between the lines.”  When the author doesn’t answer your questions, readers often have to infer the answer.  The ability to infer helps the reader get to the “why” of the story.

• Think about why a character acts a certain way.

• How does the character feel in certain situations?

• Why did the author choose to…when writing the book?

• What clues in the story help you to infer?

Finding Important Ideas

Readers need to prioritize as they read.  They have to be able to identify the main idea and identify themes.  It is a critical skill for students as they encounter textbooks and nonfiction texts.

• What is the text mostly about?

• What is the author trying to tell you?

• What is the message?

• What did you learn?

• What are the important details?

Synthesizing

​When readers combine what they know with new information to understand the text, they synthesize.  What they thought at the beginning may change as they read.

• Do you get it now?

• What did you learn?

• Does it make you think of something?

• Did anything surprise you?