Different types of reading strategies
To make meaning out of the symbols that appear on a printed page, the human brain uses a complex array of strategies. As proficient readers, we have internalized these reading strategies to the point where our brains use many of them automatically and without conscious effort. But to teach reading, we must be meta-cognitive, identifying what our brains have learned to do automatically and teaching children to do it consciously. Once children spend sufficient time practicing these strategies in their reading, they will begin to use them automatically and effortlessly.
Reading strategies can be organized into the categories below. Proficient readers integrate all the strategies; therefore, there is no set sequence for teaching reading strategies. Instructional decisions are most often based on formal and informal assessment data.
Concepts of Print: Before readers can use any strategies effectively, they must understand what print is and how it works. Although some children have this knowledge when they start school, many do not. We must explicitly teach these children that sentences are made of words and words are made of letters, that there is a one-to-one correspondence between print and speech, and that we read from left to right.
Text Selection Strategies: To become more proficient readers and develop a love of reading, children must have successful reading experiences with books they enjoy. In Readers’ Workshop, we allow children to exercise choice over what they read independently. We do this because we want them to develop the dispositions and attitudes of lifelong readers, viewing reading as an exciting source of entertainment, knowledge, and joy rather than just something they are made to do in school. To ensure they make good choices, teachers provide explicit instruction in selecting “just-right” books—books that are of interest to the student, appropriately challenging but not too difficult, books of high interest, and connected to the current unit of study. Proficient readers know themselves and their preferences and make wise choices based on this knowledge.
Word-Level Decoding Strategies: Readers use a variety of strategies to decode individual words. Marie Clay has identified three reading cueing systems--meaning, structure, and visual information—which relate to the sources of information readers use to decode words. To become successful readers, children learn to use and integrate all three cueing systems. Children use meaning cues when they consider whether a word makes sense given what they know about the world. They use structural cues when they decide whether a word sounds right given their knowledge of the grammar and syntax of the English language. They use visual information when they look for a match between the sounds in the word and the letters on the page. To use visual cues most effectively, children must fully understand the system by which written symbols represent sounds in the English language. That is why it is important to teach daily systematic phonics lessons in addition to Readers’ Workshop.
Vocabulary-Building Strategies: When readers come across a word that they can decode but do not understand, they typically use a strategy to determine the meaning. They may infer the meaning from context, analyze the parts of the word, or look it up in a dictionary.
Fluency Strategies: Children need to learn strategies for improving fluency—attending to punctuation, reading with phrasing and voice so that it sounds more like talking, automaticity with high-frequency words, going back and rereading when they correct an error—and they need to practice and master these strategies as they read and reread familiar texts.
Passage-Level Comprehension Strategies: Reading is much more than decoding words and stringing them together. Research has identified the cognitive strategies that proficient readers use to make meaning from text. In Readers’ Workshop, teachers help students understand that reading is thinking as they model proficient reader strategies: asking questions, making connections, creating sensory images, activating background knowledge, determining importance, drawing inferences, synthesizing, monitoring for meaning, and so forth. The units of study in Readers’ Workshop aligned to CCSS provide ample opportunity for students to apply and integrate all the strategies when tackling complex texts.
Reading strategies can be organized into the categories below. Proficient readers integrate all the strategies; therefore, there is no set sequence for teaching reading strategies. Instructional decisions are most often based on formal and informal assessment data.
Concepts of Print: Before readers can use any strategies effectively, they must understand what print is and how it works. Although some children have this knowledge when they start school, many do not. We must explicitly teach these children that sentences are made of words and words are made of letters, that there is a one-to-one correspondence between print and speech, and that we read from left to right.
Text Selection Strategies: To become more proficient readers and develop a love of reading, children must have successful reading experiences with books they enjoy. In Readers’ Workshop, we allow children to exercise choice over what they read independently. We do this because we want them to develop the dispositions and attitudes of lifelong readers, viewing reading as an exciting source of entertainment, knowledge, and joy rather than just something they are made to do in school. To ensure they make good choices, teachers provide explicit instruction in selecting “just-right” books—books that are of interest to the student, appropriately challenging but not too difficult, books of high interest, and connected to the current unit of study. Proficient readers know themselves and their preferences and make wise choices based on this knowledge.
Word-Level Decoding Strategies: Readers use a variety of strategies to decode individual words. Marie Clay has identified three reading cueing systems--meaning, structure, and visual information—which relate to the sources of information readers use to decode words. To become successful readers, children learn to use and integrate all three cueing systems. Children use meaning cues when they consider whether a word makes sense given what they know about the world. They use structural cues when they decide whether a word sounds right given their knowledge of the grammar and syntax of the English language. They use visual information when they look for a match between the sounds in the word and the letters on the page. To use visual cues most effectively, children must fully understand the system by which written symbols represent sounds in the English language. That is why it is important to teach daily systematic phonics lessons in addition to Readers’ Workshop.
Vocabulary-Building Strategies: When readers come across a word that they can decode but do not understand, they typically use a strategy to determine the meaning. They may infer the meaning from context, analyze the parts of the word, or look it up in a dictionary.
Fluency Strategies: Children need to learn strategies for improving fluency—attending to punctuation, reading with phrasing and voice so that it sounds more like talking, automaticity with high-frequency words, going back and rereading when they correct an error—and they need to practice and master these strategies as they read and reread familiar texts.
Passage-Level Comprehension Strategies: Reading is much more than decoding words and stringing them together. Research has identified the cognitive strategies that proficient readers use to make meaning from text. In Readers’ Workshop, teachers help students understand that reading is thinking as they model proficient reader strategies: asking questions, making connections, creating sensory images, activating background knowledge, determining importance, drawing inferences, synthesizing, monitoring for meaning, and so forth. The units of study in Readers’ Workshop aligned to CCSS provide ample opportunity for students to apply and integrate all the strategies when tackling complex texts.
