A. Strategies Learned During Instruction ---excerpted from Learner’s Publishing (2008) Predicting
Students use information from a text to predict outcomes not explicitly stated in the text. This strategy can help learners focus on reading and help them investigate their own comprehension (Ke, 2009). A story titled Funny Bones was introduced to students by just listening first. With the dramatic intonation and lively spooky sound effects such as door squeaking and heavy footsteps, students were asked to guess what the story is about and offered their predictions. After the Q & A, students got a print-out story and learned how to use clues, words and pictures in the text to guess the meaning of a story. Then a video clip of the story was played.
Guessing from context
The meaning of unknown words can be guessed from the context or the words that appear frequently. An article about Jane Goodall was used as reading material.
Students were asked to work with teammates to circle all the unfamiliar words in the text and then compete with another team to see if both of them guess the meaning of words in the same way.
Inferring
Students were asked to make inferences about what is most likely to be true based on information provided in a text. They need to look for details and see what makes the most sense to support their inferences. This strategy can be learned with “guessing from the context” strategy.
Identifying main ideas
This is a strategy which readers use to determine the main idea in a text or in specific paragraphs. Significant clues to find main ideas are the title and the conclusion.
A Chinese text named Pearl Birds was used to practice this strategy. Students were encouraged to use this strategy in English reading.
Summarizing
The strategy is used to locate relevant information in a text, underline it and think about how it is linked. Words like while, but, when, and as may be very important in deciding how the information is linked. Unnecessary and irrelevant information should be omitted. A story called Knight was used to practice this strategy. Students were asked to underline the key sentences and rewrite the story with ten sentences. For
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low-achieving students, an alternative way to practice this strategy is have them underline key sentences and then delete all the remaining ones.
Using pictures/graph/table aids
An expository text called Five Steps of Sleeping was used for this strategy. This is a challenging article for most sixth graders because there are many science-related words contained in the article. Students were first asked to read written words only and
encouraged to guess the main points in the text. Then the researcher illustrated the text with graphs and pictures to help students understand.
Locating similarities and differences in an article
Readers compare and contrast who, where and what happened in a text. Students were required to categorize information to determine what some people, places and events have in common, or how they differ. An expository text called All around the world was used to introduce this strategy.
Activating background knowledge
When students encounter reading difficulties, they often turn to past experience to search for information. An article Halloween was introduced to students. This reading was easy to most students because they just celebrated Halloween with trick-or-treat activity. This real life experience made the reading material easier to understand.
Looking up words in dictionary
About one fifth of students in the class did not know how to use a dictionary before the research began. Students are required to know how to look up words in a dictionary before they graduate from elementary school. Since learning with technology is gaining popularity, using online dictionary such as yahoo dictionary and Cambridge dictionary was also introduced to the students.
Rereading/Adjusting speed of reading
When students face a reading difficulty, they need to know when and where to slow down the reading speed or reread to clarify the confusion.
An expository text about going to a party was used for this strategy. Readers were asked to verbally express what needs attention when attending a party, and what are the do's and don’ts in a party. In order to find the answer, students read several times.
Self-questioning
By self-questioning, readers gradually clear doubts in reading. An expository about cell phone was used for this strategy. Joel said, “…it mentions that when people talk on their cell phones while watching movies in a theater, they will be considered very
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impolite. I ask myself if I were the other audience, what would I do….” Because this topic was very familiar to the reader, he easily retrieved information from his schemata and correctly answered the questions.
Sequencing
A recipe was used for this strategy training. Attention needs to be paid on the special signs, numbers and titles for each paragraph. Then the students watched a video about how this dish was made. After reviewing new words, students wrote down each cooking step on a piece of paper, and then mixed up those sentences on the desk. The researcher set a time limit and asked students to put the sentences in order. If students had difficulty completing the task, the teacher would read out cooking steps for them.
Identifying cause and effect/Relationship
Readers need to understand what cause in a reading leads to what effect and how they are connected.
An exposition titled Snake was used for this strategy. First, students identified the reasons which cause snakes to attack people. Second, they pointed out the effects of the deadly attack.
Scanning and skimming
Scanning is to find out key information in a text; skimming is to grasp main ideas in texts. An email about making pen pal was used. Students were asked to find the sender’s intention of writing this email and to name the main events mentioned in this email.
Reading aloud
Readers read out unfamiliar words or phrases in order to retrieve the meaning from their memory. They might repeat this reading-aloud a couple of times or reread the word or the whole sentence to see if the sound of the unfamiliar words would activate their prior knowledge and bring back useful information to help them comprehend.
Taking notes
Readers underline key words or sentences and write notes while reading. Those notes could be made in written words or drawings as long as they help readers recall the main ideas expressed by the author at a later time. The researcher gave students a short reading What is hail? to read. Students were asked to read silently and find the main idea.
Then they reread and underlined keywords or phrases. Finally, a note-taken passage was introduced to students to demonstrate how to use this strategy effectively.