Defining Reading Strategies
When reading, readers are involved in a complex and recursive process of activating
prior knowledge, drawing on a range of strategies within the context. Effective
readers use reading strategies continuously and in combination with one another.
The following description of each reading strategy gives some indication of when
they are generally employed. Reading strategies are evident before, during and after
reading, although not necessarily with the same emphasis. For example, ‘predicting’
is typically used before reading while ‘synthesising’ is used during and after reading.
Different texts and contexts require readers to use different reading strategies at
different times.
Predicting
Predicting helps readers to activate their prior knowledge about a topic; it helps
readers combine what they know with new material in the text.
Predictions are based on clues in the text, such as pictures, illustrations, subtitles
and plot. Clues for predictions will also come from readers’ prior knowledge about
the author, text form and content.
Students can be encouraged to make personal predictions before and during
reading. During reading, effective readers adjust and refine their earlier predictions
as new information is gathered and new connections are made. Predictions are
usually related to events, actions or results and they will be either confirmed or
rejected once the text has been read.
Students can also use predicting to identify unknown words. These types of
predictions are usually formed from what would make the best sense based on the
surrounding context clues.
“From what I know about fishing, I don’t think that he will ever
be able to catch a shark with that size line and hook.”
Connecting
Efficient readers comprehend text by making strong connections between their prior
knowledge and new information presented in a text.
Keene and Zimmerman (1997) categorise the types of connections made by efficient
readers:



Text-to-self connections involve readers thinking about their life and
connecting their own personal experiences to the information in the text.
Text-to-text connections involve readers thinking about other texts written
by the same author or with common themes, style, organisation, structure,
characters or content.
Text-to-world connections involve readers thinking about what they know
about the world outside their personal experience, their family or their
community.
Activating students’ prior knowledge before reading is important. However, students
need to be able to continue to use this strategy during reading to make continual
connections as they read.
Some students may make connections that have little relevance to text
comprehension, but effective readers limit their connections to those that enhance
understanding of the text. Conversations about connections can help students to
focus on how connections assist understanding.
“This part reminds me of the time I was on a small boat with
my dad. I felt terrified by the waves and the swell. Andy must be
feeling very unsafe now”
Comparing
Comparing relates closely to the connecting strategy. As students make connections
between a text and other texts or between a text and the outside world, they also
begin to make comparisons.
Comparing goes further than making connections as it involves students thinking
more specifically about similarities and differences. When students make
comparisons they may begin to ask questions, for example:



How is this different from what I do?
How is this passage similar to the one I have read?
How is this information different from what I believe about this issue?
The author is using a very similar style in the novel to the
previous one she wrote. I notice once again she is using flash
back in time to create two plots.
Inferring
Efficient readers take information from a text and add their own ideas to make
inferences. As readers infer, they make predictions, draw conclusions and make
judgements to create a unique interpretation.
Making inferences allows students to move beyond the literal text and to make
assumptions about what is not overtly stated in the text. Inferences made by
students may be unresolved by the end of the text: neither confirmed nor rejected by
the author. Efficient readers also can infer the meaning of unknown words using
context clues, pictures or diagrams.
“The lady celebrated when her husband and her son went on
the plane to Hawaii. I think she would have been happier to
move a spare few days to Henley.”
Synthesising
When comprehending text, efficient readers use synthesising to bring together within
a text. Synthesising involves readers piecing together information, like assembling a
jigsaw. During the process of synthesising, students may be connecting, inferring,
determining importance, self-questioning and visualising.
“So, this bit helps me understand why Grandpa left the farm.
He just couldn’t do all the jobs alone!!
Visualising
As they read, efficient readers use all five senses to create images based on prior
knowledge. Sensory images created by readers help them to draw conclusions,
make predictions, interpret information, remember details and assist with overall
comprehension. The images may be visual, auditory, olfactory kinaesthetic or
emotional.
Students may need extra encouragement to visualise with greater detail or go
beyond the literal information provided in the text. Support also can be provided to
help students revise the images when new information is gained.
It is important for students to be given the opportunity to share their images and to
talk about how visualising helps them better understand text. Images can be shared
orally, as drawings, as jottings or through drama.
“I think the house is really old and dilapidated with creepers
all over it.”
Self-questioning
Efficient readers continually form questions in their mind before, during, and after
reading to assist with comprehension. Questions may relate to the content, style,
structure, messages, events, actions, inferences, predictions or the author’s
purpose; they may even be an attempt to clarify meaning.
Self-formulated questions provide a framework for active reading, engaging students
in the text as the go in search of answers. Often questions are formed spontaneously
and naturally, with one question leading to the next.
Helping students to become aware of the questions they naturally ask is important
for developing this strategy. It is also important to encourage students to understand
how generating questions help to develop a deeper understanding of text. Students
also need to realise that the text might not contain answers to all their questions.
“I wonder where the dad is in the story. Did she ever know
her dad at all?”
Skimming
Skimming is glancing through material to gain a general impression or overview of
the content. It involves passing over much detail to het the gist of a text.
Skimming is the most common strategy used by readers to assess quickly whether a
text is going to meet their purpose. Effective skimming lets readers know
approximately how difficult a text is, how long it is, how it is structured and where the
most useful information can be found.
Effective skimming is critical for adolescents due to their frequent access and use of
multimedia and online texts.
Skimming is often used before reading to:





Quickly assess whether a text is going to meet the purpose.
Determine what is to be read.
Determine what is important and what may be irrelevant.
Review a text’s organisation.
Activate prior knowledge.
“I think this pamphlet is going to be useful for my project. I
can see by the headings and pictures that it includes
information about habitat, breeding, food, hunting and
behaviour of lions. This should be great”.
Students can be helped to use skimming by being encouraged to check any
graphics; underlined, italicised or highlighted text; and titles and subheadings.
Scanning
Scanning involves glancing through material to locate specific details such as
names, dates or places. For example, readers might scan a contents page or index
to find the page number of a specific topic; they might scan a dictionary or telephone
book to search for a particular word or name; they might scan as they quickly reread
a text to reconfirm information; or they may scan a text looking for picture clues to
help them identify any unknown words.
“from the list of options generated by my search, this website looks the best. It states
that it contains photographs of lions which is what I’m looking for”.
Like skimming, scanning is particularly important for comprehending parts of
multimedia texts.
Determining Importance
Efficient readers constantly ask themselves what is the most important or main idea
of what they are reading. They benefit from understanding how to determine the
important information, particularly in informational texts.
Readers are helped to identify important information in a text by factors such as their
purpose for reading, knowledge of the topic, prior experiences, belief and
understanding of text organisation.
Students can begin to identify important ideas from short pieces of texts. Later, key
words, phrases and sentences can be identified.
It is helpful to begin with informational texts and to highlight the organisational
features that will help students to separate the important information from the less
important information. These features include headings. Subheadings, titles,
illustrations, bold text, icons and font size.
Students also need opportunities to determine important information in literacy texts.
“Oh this is the part food and hunting. I will underline
the keywords I think varied diet and female’s duty are
important”.
Summarising and Paraphrasing
Summarising and paraphrasing involves recording and writing the most important
information from a text in your own words. The strategy is closely linked to the
strategy of determining importance.
Reducing a large piece of text to its most important messages is done through
summarising. Restating the text’s content in your own words is paraphrasing. Both
summarising and paraphrasing involve using key words and phrases to capture the
gist of a text.
“I think the purpose of this piece of text was to help me
understand that explores knew much less about the
world than me do today”.
Rereading
Efficient readers understand the benefits of rereading texts or parts of texts to clarify
meaning. Reading or hearing a text more than once allows readers to gain a deeper
understanding of the text.
Rereading can also be used as word-identification strategy. Efficient readers
sometimes reread text to work out the meaning of difficult words using context clues.
The opportunity to reread a text also helps to improve fluency.
Reading On
When students cannot decode an unfamiliar word within a text, they can make use of
the reading on strategy. Skipping the unfamiliar word and reading on to the end of
the sentence, or the next two or three sentences, often provides readers with
sufficient context clues to determine the unknown word. Once the unfamiliar word
has been determined, it is important for students to reread that section of text.
Reading on can also be used with large chunks of text to clarify meaning. Reading
on to the end of a section or chapter can often support understanding.
“I’m not sure what this word is, I’ll skip it, keep reading
to the end of the sentence and see if that gives me a
clue”.
Adjusting Reading Rate
It is important that students allow themselves to adjust their reading rate and
recognise when this may be necessary.
The purpose for reading will often dictate the most appropriate reading rate. Readers
may slow down to understand new information, to clarify meaning, to create sensory
images or to ask questions. Readers may speed up when scanning for key words or
skimming to get an overall impression of a text.
“I’ll quickly read the headings and pictures of this web
page to see if it will give me some information about the
habitat of reptiles”.
Sounding Out
When readers meet new and unfamiliar words, they will use their knowledge of
letter-sound relationships to identify them.
Chunking
As readers encounter greater numbers of polysyllabic words, it is important to
encourage them to break words into units larger than individual phonemes (single
sounds, such as ‘b’). Readers might chunk words by pronouncing letter combinations
(ough), syllables or word parts (spr-ing), and they may recognise parts of the word
that carry meaning (-ed, -ing), which are known as morphemes.
Using Analogy
When readers manipulate or think about words they know to identify unknown words,
they are using analogy. They transfer what they know about familiar words and use it
to help them identify unfamiliar words.
When using analogy, students will transfer their knowledge of common letter
sequences, word parts (such as onset and rimes), base words, morphemes and
whole words.
Consulting a reference
The use of strategies to identify words, such as ‘sounding out’ or ‘chunking’, may
unlock both the pronunciation and meaning of words; however, readers still may not
be able to understand the meaning of the word.
Consulting a reference is a strategy that supports students to unlock word meaning.
Being taught how to use a dictionary, a thesaurus, a reference chart or a glossary
will help students to locate the meanings, pronunciations and derivations of
unfamiliar words.
A summary of reading strategy definitions
Strategy
Adjusting reading rate
Chunking
Comparing
Connecting
Creating images
Consulting a reference
Determining importance
Inferring
Predicting
Reading on
Re -reading
Scanning
Self-questioning
Skimming
Summarising and
paraphrasing
Synthesising
Sounding out
Using Analogy
Definition
A reading strategy that involves the speeding up or slowing
down of reading, depending on the purpose and/or text
difficulty
A strategy used to identify unknown words by breaking
words into units larger than phonemes and then attaching
sound to the units
A reading strategy that involves thinking about similarities
and differences between what is known and what is
portrayed in texts
A reading strategy that involves making links, such as
between what is read and other texts, and between what is
read and oneself
A reading strategy involving the reader using all 5 senses
to create images before, during or after reading
A strategy used to unlock word meaning by referring to a
variety of sources
A reading strategy that involves making decisions about
what is important in a text and what is not
A reading strategy that involves combining the information
written in the text with the reader’s own ideas to create their
unique interpretation of the text
A reading strategy that involves the use of prior knowledge
to anticipate what is going to occur in a text
A reading strategy that involves continuing to read when
encountering difficulties or unknown words
A reading strategy that involves going back over parts of
the texts or whole texts to clarify meaning or to assist with
word identification
A reading strategy that involves glancing quickly through
material to locate specific information
A reading strategy that involves generating one’s own
questions before, during and after reading
A reading strategy that involves quickly glancing through a
text to get a general impression or overview of the content
A reading strategy involving condensing information to the
most important ideas.
A reading strategy involving bringing together pieces of
information during or after reading for different purposes.
A strategy used to identify an unknown word. E.g. saying
the sound represented by individual letter or letter
combinations blending them together and arriving at a
pronunciation
A strategy used to identify unknown words by thinking
about what they know about familiar words and transferring
it to the new word