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Teaching reading strategies

Readers need to know how to read, that is, to use reading strategies. Reading strategies are actions that connect or link ideas in two ways :

  • they link ideas in the text at any time with ideas that they have read earlier in the text.
  • they link ideas in the text with ideas they have already learnt and stored in their existing knowledge.

It is useful to identify two types of strategies students need to learn to use when reading : how to comprehend the text they read and how to manage their reading activity:

  • comprehending strategies; these are the actions readers use to manipulate and link ideas at each level, e.g., visualising, inferring, summarise. These are part of a reader's literacy knowledge, their knowledge of how to make sense of written text.
  • the actions readers use to manage and direct the use of the comprehending strategies, for example, decide when and why to use each action, evaluate how well it works in terms of a goal and frame up goals for reading. These are the actions readers use to manage and direct their activity while reading.

Readers learn these actions initially in interactive reading activities. They can practise using them in a supported way in the paired and shared reading contexts and ultimately use them independently in solo reading aloud contexts.