STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

Important Reading Comprehension Skills and Activities To Promote Them
Part I

By Michelle Kahen, Associate Executive Director

Good readers are purposeful and active using a wide variety of strategies, often simultaneously, to create meaning from text. Here are some important useful reading comprehension strategies to utilize when working with your reading partner.

ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Connecting new information with the student's knowledge, culture and past experience increases the student's interest and makes it easier to relate to the concepts or ideas. This familiarity makes the reading more meaningful and relevant.

KWLH Chart - Click here
Story Link - Click here

SEQUENCE

Most stories have a sequence. By exploring the sequence, you are gaining a keener understanding of the story.

Story Timeline Chart - Click here
My Day Organizer - Click here
What Happened? - Click here
Comic Strip - Cut the comic strips and ask the student to put them in order.

Sequence Book List:
The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
Good Night, Owl by Pat Hutchins
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Sam Who Never Forgets by Eve Rice

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Identifying the relationship between the result/effect and the factor/cause influencing it will help hone analytical and critical thinking skills.

Cause and Effect Chart - Click here
Other Cause and Effect activities - Click here

Cause and Effect Book List:
The Bremen-Town Musicians by Ruth Gross
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Pain by Verna Aardema
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
I Unpacked My Grandmother's Trunk by Susan Hoguet
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Understanding the meaning of words is vital to reading comprehension and is strongly linked to academic success.

Word Study - Click here
Word Pyramid - Click here