If you can't understand what you're reading, what's the point?

Students may be able to read a text aloud with perfect fluency and not be able to understand what they just read.

That's where during reading strategies come in.

If you’re here for the corresponding worksheets, click HERE.

Increasing Reading Comprehension

During reading strategies (along with pre-reading strategies and after-reading strategies) help students not just read a text, but comprehend it, which can be especially helpful for English language learners.

These comprehension strategies help students share their thoughts to better understand them.

Increasing Student Engagement

Not only do these comprehension strategies help students understand the text, but they also help them stay engaged. When students have a purpose for reading or a task they have to complete alongside the reading, they are more likely to actively interact with the material.

Using a during-reading strategy turns reading from a passive activity to a dynamic one.

Enhanced Critical Thinking

Using during-reading strategies can help students with their critical thinking skills. Instead of passively listening to a story, students are expected to think critically about the text.

Retention of Information

Students who passively listen to or read a story may have trouble remembering what they read. However, during-reading strategies get students involved in reading and therefore help them retain the information they learn. Developing a consistent strategy focus while employing during-reading strategies can significantly improve information retention.

Note-Taking Skills

Note-taking is a skill that students need to learn to develop. Many during-reading strategies give students opportunities to practice taking notes with a purpose in mind.

During Reading Strategies

There are numerous during-reading strategies that you can use to improve your reading lesson.

Click HERE for worksheets, graphic organizers, and templates to go with the strategies below.

Cloze Reading

This strategy enhances reading comprehension by focusing on context and vocabulary. It encourages critical thinking as students must infer missing words based on surrounding text.

Implementation:

1. For cloze reading, provide a text with certain words or phrases omitted.

2. Then, have students fill in the blanks with the appropriate words as they read.

Column Notes

Column notes allow students to practice note-taking skills by encouraging them to extract key points. This strategy also enhances organization and understanding of text structure.

Implementation:

1. To start, divide a sheet of paper into two columns.

2. As students read, they write main ideas or key words in one column and the key details or explanations in the other.

Directed Reading Thinking Activity

This strategy cultivates critical thinking by engaging students in active prediction and assessment of their predictions. It encourages interaction with the text for deeper comprehension.

The Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy consists of 3 parts:

1. Direct: To start, you will direct students' thinking and activate prior knowledge of the text. To do this, scan the title, chapter headings, illustrations and other elements of the text. Then, ask students open-ended questions. For example, "Looking at the front cover, what do you think this story will be about?" Have students write down their predictions.

2. Reading: In preparation, you will need to choose stopping points where you will stop and discuss student predictions. Then, have students read one section of the text at a time.

3. Thinking: At the end of each section, have students evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. Students should use supporting evidence from the text to decide whether their predictions were correct or incorrect.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers enhance critical thinking by helping students organize and connect information. It also improves comprehension by visualizing relationships and main ideas.

Graphic organizers, such as concept maps, Venn diagrams, and story webs, are a great way to provide a visual framework for students to organize the information from the text. Have students fill in the graphic organizer with relevant information from the text as they are reading to better understand it.

If you need graphic organizers for writing, check out THIS OPTION. If you’d like graphic organizers for the strategies listed in this post, go HERE.

The I-Chart Procedure

The I-Chart Procedure helps students practice note-taking and research skills.

To effectively implement this technique, have students follow these steps:

1. Planning Phase:

   • Choose a topic of study.

   • Formulate questions to be answered through reading.

   • Use the chart to record information.

   • Collect materials related to the chosen topic.

2. Interacting Phase:

   • Record prior knowledge about the topic.

   • Record any additional information acquired from reading.

   • Discuss and record pertinent questions.

   • Read and discuss sources with teacher guidance.

3. Integrating and Evaluating Phase:

   • Create a summary for each question on your chart using the information you collected.

   • Compare your summaries with your existing background knowledge and make clarifications as needed.

   • Discuss your new knowledge.

   • Locate and incorporate new information that addresses unanswered questions.

   • Present your findings and insights to the group.

KWL (Know-Want-Learn)

KWL, or Know-Want-Learn, helps students organize their prior knowledge, questions, and learning. This strategy is not just a during-reading strategy, but can be used throughout the reading process.

Implementation:

1. For KWL, create three columns on a piece of anchor chart paper, your white board, or piece of paper, and label them "K" (What students KNOW), "W" (What students WANT to learn), and "L" (What students have LEARNED).

2. Before reading, fill out the first column with information your students already know about the topic.

3. Then, have your students generate questions they have about the topic in the second column.

4. During reading, have your students look for the answers to the questions they have.

5. After reading, have students write down the new things they learned in the last column.

Opinion-Proof Chart

This strategy develops critical thinking by requiring students to support their opinions with textual evidence. It also improves comprehension and argumentative skills.

Implementation:

1. Create a chart with two columns: "Opinion" and "Proof."

2. Students write their opinion about the text's topic in one column and provide evidence from the text in the other.

Paragraph Shrinking

This strategy enhances summarization skills and understanding of main ideas. It encourages critical thinking by requiring students to prioritize information.

Implementation:

1. Students should read a paragraph or a section at a time.

2. Then, they will stop and write a summary using a limited number of words, usually 10.

3. This helps them condense the main ideas while retaining key details.

4. You can have students pair up and take turns with this, which allows for immediate peer feedback.

Questioning the Author

Questioning the Author promotes critical thinking about the text's construction. It develops critical thinking skills by encouraging students to analyze the text's deeper meanings and authorial decisions.

Encourage students to ask questions about the author's choices, writing style, and intent.

Here are some examples of questions to ask:

1. Why did the author include this information? Readers consider the reasons behind the author's decisions to include specific details, examples, or arguments.

2. What is the author's perspective or point of view? Readers analyze the author's biases, beliefs, and intentions to understand how they shape the content.

3. What message or theme is the author trying to convey? Readers look for overarching ideas or lessons that the author is trying to communicate through their writing.

4. How does the author use language and rhetoric? Readers examine the author's choice of words, tone, and style to understand how these elements contribute to the overall meaning of the text.

5. Are there any inconsistencies or contradictions in the text? Readers identify any points in the text where the author's arguments, evidence, or ideas might conflict or be unclear.

6. What emotions or reactions is the author trying to evoke? Readers consider how the author is attempting to engage the reader's emotions or influence their perspective.

7. Are there any underlying assumptions in the text? Readers critically evaluate the assumptions the author makes and how these assumptions might impact the validity of their arguments.

8. How does this text connect to other texts or ideas? Readers explore how the current text relates to their prior knowledge, experiences, and other readings.

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching develops critical thinking through peer-led discussions. It also improves comprehension as students actively engage with the text and its concepts.

Implementation:

First, separate students into small groups of 3-4. Give each student one of the following roles:

• Summarizer

• Questioner

• Clarifier

• Predictor (Optional)

Next, have students read a section of the text at a time. Then, have them stop to discuss the text.

• The summarizer will summarize the section in 1-2 sentences.

• The questioner will craft questions about things that were unclear, ask about connections that can be made, or ask other questions.

• The clarifier will answer the questions posed by the questioner.

• The predictor will predict what will come next in the text.

Then, students will rotate jobs and continue with the next section of text until the text is completely read.

If you’re looking for worksheets to implement these strategies, go HERE.

Say Something

"Say Something" enhances engagement by promoting regular interaction with the text and it develops critical thinking and comprehension.

Implementation:

1. Before you begin, separate students into partners. You can use shoulder partners to make it easy.

2. While reading, have students pause at predetermined points and "say something" about the text—whether it's a question, connection, prediction, or reflection. They will turn to their partner and say something from one of the categories.

3. Their partner will take their turn.

4. Then, they will move onto the next section.

5. After students finish the entire text, you can consider having them fill out a worksheet, saying something in each of the 6 categories.

Provide your students with sentence stems to help them come up with something to say. You may be surprised with some of the brilliant ideas they come up with.

Story Maps

A story map enhances comprehension by aiding visualization of story structure. A story map also develops critical thinking by analyzing story components.

Have students use a story map template to visually outline the story elements while reading narrative texts.

1. Exposition refers to the settings and characters introduced at the beginning of the story.

2. Rising Action consists of the events where characters start to run into problems.

3. Climax refers to the turning point in the story, where the characters meet the biggest challenge.

4. Falling Action consists of what happens as the characters solve the problems they dealt with.

5. Resolution refers to the "happy ending" where the author wraps up the story.

Text Coding

This strategy helps develop active reading habits and note-taking skills. It enhances critical thinking by encouraging interaction with the text.

Text coding involves teaching students to annotate the text using symbols, highlighting, and underlining to mark important information, connections, questions, and unfamiliar vocabulary.

For example, students might put a question mark next to something they don't understand or an exclamation mark next to something they found interesting. They can put a heart next to a favorite part or circle an unfamiliar word.

Text Structure (Skim & Scan)

Determining the text structure helps students with reading comprehension because students can better understand the relationship between the main idea and details. It also develops critical thinking by analyzing how authors present information.

Teach students to identify different text structures to better understand how the information is organized. Then, you can use a graphic organizer to take notes on the text based on the text structure.

Here are some of the most common text structures:

1. Cause & Effect shows how one thing leads to another or how actions result in outcomes.

2. Problem & Solution consists of presenting an issue and then providing ways to resolve or address that issue.

3. Compare & Contrast discusses similarities and differences between two or more subjects, showing how they are alike and different.

4. Description provides details and characteristics to create a clear picture of a subject or topic.

5. Chronological refers to arranging information in the order in which events occurred, often following a timeline or sequence.

Think Aloud

During this strategy instruction comes from modeling. A teacher demonstration of thinking aloud can help make proficient readers because it shows students how to mentally process a text.

As you read aloud to your students, think out loud too.

Say things like:

• Hmm, I wonder might happen next. I think [this] might happen because [reason].

• I think the main idea of this section is ...

• What the character did here makes me think ...

• I don't know this word, but I can figure it out.

After you model this for students, give them the opportunity to practice.

Thinking aloud helps students with reading comprehension because it encourages them to take an active part in reading.

Conclusion

Having a purpose while reading helps students stay focused during a reading lesson. These strategies provide students with this purpose.

Reading comprehension, engagement, critical thinking, information retention, and note-taking skills are critical factors for success.

If you’d like worksheets that help you implement these during-reading strategies, check out THESE.

Further Reading

Learn about reading comprehension HERE and reading comprehension questions HERE.

Learning about active learning strategies HERE.