How to teach reading strategies

In this section we examine how the reading comprehension strategies can be taught.

Readers need to learn to:

• know how and when to use each strategy,
• automatize the use of each strategy
• integrate the strategies into a set of guiding reading actions and
• monitor the use of the strategies, how effectively they work.

Teachers can develop the notion that these are actions readers can use when they read. Ask them to

• talk about the reading actions that they use, the ones that seem to work best for them.
• see the strategies as 'reading actions' that they carry around in their heads, that these are things that they can do whenever they need to read.
• keep a list of 'reading actions' or strategies that they will use as they read. As they learn each new strategy they can add this to their list.

Group strategy practise Group of roughly comparable ability in reading and interest. The teacher

• selects a text at the group's instructional level.
• uses the orienting activities. Gradually students manage this.
• asks students to read the first part of the text, by themselves initially.
• has students discuss what they think it is about, what they have learnt and how they decided.
• asks the students to read the second section and repeat the discussion, interpret the text.
• monitor and assess reading outcomes and progress made by individual students.

Implement a group reading action plan or schedule

• As students become more familiar with the procedure, observe and record how individual students read and the conditions under which they read best. You can gradually move away from basing the guided reading on the text and adapt to the needs of individual readers.
• Use the procedure for practising integrated sets of reading strategies.
• Plan to have groups work on narrative, expository and descriptive texts.
• Develop cumulative evaluation and monitoring procedures.