Reading Strategies

Partner Reading:  Pair students up to take turns reading to each other. Partners work together to ask questions as they read, to summarize, and to predict. To pair students effectively, number your students according to reading strengths and divide them in half.  If you have thirty students, number one pairs with number sixteen and number fifteen pairs with number thirty.  Pair the rest of your students using the same method


Jigsaw: Students are assigned to one of several heterogeneously grouped study teams with a text or text segment to read and a set of questions or goals to discuss. All the students in this group become “experts” on that particular text. These “experts” are responsible for teaching the content of their area to other students, who read and become “experts” on other sections of text. Once the study groups have answered their questions or met their goals, each member of the study team joins representatives from each other’s team to form a “jigsaw” group. Each member of the new group teaches the piece with which he or she has developed “expertise” from his or her study team. 

“jigsaw” groups


Expert Reading:  Students are assigned segments of the text that they are to practice reading. After they have practiced reading their section, they are to develop questions to ask their peers regarding that section. The following day, the students read their section aloud.  Once their section is finished, they may ask their peers the questions they developed. If necessary, students may reread sections of their selection in order to help their classmates answer the questions. Although this may seem similar to round robin reading, it differs in one very specific way: Students are given time to practice their reading before they are asked to read in front of their peers.

FORI (Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction): FORI reading involves students in repeatedly reading a selected text (usually a short, complex text) several times over the course of a week. The text is first read aloud by the teacher with the students following along in their own copy. A discussion is held in order to direct attention to the importance of comprehension early on in the lessons. Over the next few days, the students echo, choral, and partner-read the text. 

Collaborative Strategic Reading

CSR teaches students to use strategies that fluent readers use – prediction, self-monitoring, and summarizing. The teacher first teaches and instructs the students in each of the strategies used in CSR. When students understand the strategies, they are put in groups and assigned a small “chunk” of the text.  Groups progress through the following steps:

-Preview: Before reading the text, groups discuss what they already know about the text and make predictions about what they expect to learn from the text.

-Click & Clunk: Students learn to identify when the reading “clicks” (smooth reading that makes sense) and when it “clunks” (unfamiliar words, rough reading).  Clunks signal students to employ other strategies to resolve comprehension problems – reread, read ahead to the end of the paragraph, analyze unfamiliar words for familiar word parts, ask partners for help.

Get the Gist:  At the end of each text chunk, students summarize the main ideas and important details.

Wrap-Up:  After the group has finished the entire reading, the group revisits their predictions and checks for accuracy.

When CSR is first implemented, it is helpful to assign roles within each group.  As groups become proficient with the process, roles fade away.  Studies show that when students are carefully taught the strategies of CSR, off-task group talk decreases.

*Both “click & clunk” and “get the gist” are completed several times until the entire reading. 



Reciprocal Teaching/Reading

(Also Discussed in March ELA Focus)

During reciprocal teaching conversations, students practice specific comprehension skills and are assigned roles of predictor, questioner, summarizer, and clarifier.  Roles can be combined or shared so that groups can consist of more or less students.

As the groups read, they pause periodically to talk about the text.  Students can keep the same role for the entire text or switch roles after each section.  If students are going to switch roles, it is very important that the teacher has procedures for the switch to avoid confusion. 

*Students can either read sections silently, or they can take turns reading in the group.

For more information on reciprocal reading, see the reciprocal reading guide link below:
 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/ReciprocalReadingGuide_tcm4-812956.pdf
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