Reading comprehension strategies in the classroom
Discover 9 evidence-based reading comprehension strategies that help teachers transform passive readers into engaged learners who truly understand text.
What are reading comprehension strategies?
Reading comprehension strategies are deliberate techniques readers employ before, during, and after reading to construct meaning. Teachers explicitly teach previewing, questioning, visualising, inferencing, and summarising, helping students move beyond decoding to deep understanding of texts.
Reading comprehension strategies are a set of techniques that guide readers to better understand and interpret text. These strategies are about reading words on a page and about deeply engaging with the content to extract meaning and build knowledge, skills that directly support expository writing through writing scaffolds. They build upon foundational skills like sight words and phonological awareness and are the cognitive processes that readers use to make sense of what they r ead. These metacognitive reading strategies help students become aware of their ownthinking while reading.
Whole class reading offers a structured approach where every learner engages with the same challenging text, with the teacher modelling close reading, posing probing questions, and explicitly building the vocabulary learners need to access the passage independently.
Key Takeaways
- Explicit instruction of a repertoire of comprehension strategies significantly enhances learners' understanding: Research consistently shows that learners benefit most when teachers explicitly model, guide, and provide opportunities for independent practice of various strategies, such as summarising, questioning, and clarifying (Pressley, 2000). This systematic approach helps learners internalise these techniques, making them more proficient and independent readers across different texts.
- Fostering metacognitive awareness equips learners to monitor and regulate their own comprehension: Teaching learners to think about their thinking while reading, including recognising when they do not understand and knowing how to apply fix-up strategies, is crucial for deep comprehension (Flavell, 1979). This metacognitive skill enables learners to become self-regulated learners who can independently navigate challenging texts and improve their understanding.
- Prior knowledge profoundly influences a learner's ability to comprehend new texts: A learner's existing background knowledge acts as a scaffold, allowing them to make connections, infer meaning, and integrate new information more effectively than those with limited prior knowledge (Recht & Leslie, 1988). Teachers should actively build and activate relevant background knowledge before, during, and after reading to maximise comprehension outcomes.
- Effective comprehension strategy instruction is an ongoing, integrated component of literacy teaching: Strategies should not be taught in isolation or as one-off lessons, but rather embedded consistently across the curriculum and applied to diverse text types (Duke & Pearson, 2002). This sustained and integrated approach ensures learners develop flexible and transferable comprehension skills, enabling them to apply strategies in various academic and real-world contexts.
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Related Topics in Literacy & Reading
These articles provide deeper coverage of the key ideas discussed above.
- Jolly Phonics
- PhonicsPlay
- Sounds-Write
- Year 1 phonics screening
- reading fluency strategies
- vocabulary tiers
- Colourful Semantics
- guided reading
- shared reading
- theories of reading
- Simple View of Reading
- Simple View of Reading guide
- Scarborough's Reading Rope
- inference and deduction
- dialogic reading
- reading for pleasure
- literature circles
- supporting learners with dyslexia
- dyslexia tests and support
- language development
- language development theories
- disciplinary literacy
- literacy pedagogy
- Talk for Writing
- Oxford Owl
- Reading Eggs
- Reading Plus
Further Reading
Reading comprehension strategies
To deepen your understanding of reading comprehension strategies, consider exploring these research papers:
- Duke, N. K., & Cartwright, K. B. (2021). The science of reading progress: Communicating advances beyond the simple view of reading. *Reading Research Quarterly, 56*(S1), S25-S44.
- Elleman, A. M., & Compton, D. L. (2017). Beyond decoding: Reading comprehension as a multifaceted process. *Reading and Writing, 30*(1), 81-102.
- Oakhill, J., Cain, K., & Elbro, C. (2015). *Understanding and teaching reading comprehension: A handbook*. Routledge.
- Sweet, A. P., & Snow, C. E. (2003). *Rethinking reading comprehension*. Guilford Press.
- Wilhelm, J. D. (2001). *Improving comprehension with think-aloud strategies*. Scholastic Professional Books.
Conclusion
Mastering reading comprehension strategies is a process, not a destination. By understanding the principles outlined in this article and consistently applying them in the classroom, teachers can helps their students to become confident and capable readers. The key is to move beyond simply teaching individual strategies and instead creates a deeper understanding of how to actively engage with text, monitor comprehension, and adjust strategies as needed. For further guidance, see our article on Rosenshine's principles.
Ultimately, the goal is to cultivate lifelong learners who possess the skills and mindset necessary to navigate the complexities of the written word. As educators, our commitment to developing these skills will have a lasting impact on the academic and personal success of our students. By integrating these evidence-based practices, we can transform reading from a chore into an engaging and enriching experience.
