By Teachthought Staff
Reading is simply a sequence of symbol interpretations.
By understanding that letters make sounds, we can blend those sounds to create an entire sound that symbolizes meanings that we all exchange with one another. By mastering symbols and their most common contexts, reading becomes a practice of thinking. Learn more about understanding and understanding decoding.
Reading doesn’t change just because you’re reading text from another content area without being too platonic about it. Sometimes it just does.
Scientific content is often filled with terminology, research citations, and odd textual features.
Social Studies content can be an interesting combination of itemized information and traditional paragraphs/images.
literature? Well, it depends on whether you mean the flexible form of poetry, the permanent structure of novel structures, or the emerging digital literature that combines multiple modalities to tell stories.
All this makes the reading strategy somewhat specific to the content area. Suspension (probably the most underrated strategy to date) and rereading may make more sense in science, but the connection between visualization and textuality may be more meaningful than reading literary works. Questioning the text may make equal sense on both.
But if you want to start with a basic strategy set, you can do worse than the elegant graphics above on wiki-teacher.com. (By the way, this is a useful site.) It lists 12 basic reading strategies.
Looking for related curriculum ideas? Check out our reading strategy resources
25 reading strategies that work in all content areas
1. Reread
Definition: Students reconsider some of the textbooks to clearly, confirm or enhance their understanding.
Example: In a science class, after reading complex lab procedures, students will reread them and ensure that they understand the important steps before starting the experiment.
2. Activate prior knowledge
Definition: Students recall related previous experiences and knowledge to connect to the content of texts.
Example: Before reading the historical accounts of the Civil War, teachers discuss students’ prior knowledge of slavery and its effects.
3. Use context cues
Definition: Students use surrounding words and phrases to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Example: In a literary class, students decipher the meaning of “drunk” in a sentence.
4. Speculation
Definition: Students make logical guesses or conclusions based on cues that combine textual cues with prior knowledge.
Example: In a mystery novel, students infer the identity of the perpetrator based on clues scattered throughout the story.
5. Think loudly
Definition: Teachers or students express their thought processes verbally while reading.
Example: In an elementary school classroom, the teacher wonders why the author uses this phrase here. Keep reading and find out.”
6. Summary
Definition: Condens the main ideas of the text into a simple summary.
Example: After reading about mitosis in biology, students will create a one-paragraph summary explaining the phase.
7. Identify the keyword
Definition: Students identify and focus on key words that convey the main ideas of the text.
Example: When analyzing news articles, students understand key points by highlighting terms such as “recession,” “unemployment,” and “inflation.”
8. Make predictions
Definition: Students infer what will happen next based on textual evidence and personal experience.
Example: While reading stories in ELA, students predict how characters resolve conflicts based on their past actions.
9. Use word attack strategies
Definition: Students decode unfamiliar words by breaking them down into root words, prefixes, or suffixes.
Example: In a vocabulary exercise, you will recognize “photos” (light) and “graphs” (writing) and decipher the word “photos.”
10. Visualize
Definition: Students create spiritual images of scenes, characters, or concepts in the text.
Example: In geography, students visualize the layout of the topography as described in the section on ecosystems.
11. Use a graphic organizer
Definition: Students visually organize textual information using Venn diagrams, concept maps, flow charts, and more.
Example: After reading about the hydration cycle of science, students create a flow chart showing evaporation, condensation and precipitation.
12. We evaluate your understanding
Definition: Students evaluate their understanding through reflection, quizzes, or discussions on the text.
Example: After reading a mathematics language problem, students evaluate their understanding by rephrasing the problem in their own words.
13. I’ll ask the text
Definition: Students ask questions before, during, and after reading to improve their understanding.
Example: History students say, “Why did the author focus on this particular battle? What was its broader effect?”
14. Stop
Definition: At unplanned or pre-determined points, students pause to reflect or clarify their understanding.
Example: During complex chemistry texts, students stop halfway through to summarise a section on covalent bonds.
15. Monitoring and Repairing Understanding
Definition: Students will notice when understanding breaks down and take steps to fix it.
Example: If a student does not understand a paragraph in a social studies text, they will either reread it or look up unfamiliar terms.
16. Rephrase
Definition: Students rephrase text or specific parts in their own words.
Example: After reading a science article, students rewrite their conclusions in their own words to show their understanding.
17. Annotate the text
Definition: Students are actively involved in the text by adding notes, symbols, or highlights.
Example: In English classes, students underline the ratiophor, highlight new vocabulary, and write margin notes on literary subjects.
18. Adjust the reading rate
Definition: Students change speeds according to their reading difficulty or purpose.
Example: High school students slow the reading pace of Shakespeare’s play, speeding up mathematics vocabulary problems.
19. Information is prioritized
Definition: Students identify which parts of the text are most important and focus on them.
Example: In textbook chapters, students prioritize bold terms, headings and outlines in their study notes.
20. Use a graphic notebook
Definition: Students create visuals (such as Cornell notes and sketches) to represent information.
Example: During Newton’s Physics Lecture on Law, students create cartoon-like diagrams of each law.
21. Predict
Definition: Students use textual evidence to predict what comes next.
Example: In the middle of a novel, students predict how the protagonist will overcome a major obstacle.
22. Set the purpose of your readers
Definition: Students read for specific purposes, such as discussion, summaries, and criticism.
Example: Before reading a controversial essay, students are instructed to identify statements and supportive arguments in the paper.
twenty three. Text Connection
Definition: Students associate texts with personal experiences (text to self), other texts (text to text), or broader world problems (text to world).
Example: After reading about environmental issues, students discuss connections with news articles on climate change (from text to world).
twenty four. Skim
Definition: Students will immediately look at the textbook to get the key points or main points.
Example: Just before the lecture, students skim the assigned reading of key headings and bullets to prepare for a deeper understanding.
twenty five. SSQ (Stop, Summary, Questions)
Definition: A structured approach that includes pauses to summarise key content and generate questions for discussion.
Example: In a history class, students stop for each of the two paragraphs of the main source, write down what it is saying in their own words, and create one discussion question.
Collect these and put them in before reading, during reading, and after reading the matrix immediately. Because we love you.
Reference: 25 Self-Guided Reading Responses for Fiction and Non-Fiction
25 reading strategies that work in all content areas
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