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Active reading strategies concern the processes a reader uses to fully engage in comprehending what they are reading. These thought processes involve the more abstract mental behaviors that involve drawing connections between details and ideas a reader absorbs as he/she reads. These processes usually occur naturally as a person reads a text. However, these processes can be directly taught to those who do not develop these skills independently. With consistent and long term practice, these processes become automatic reading comprehension strategies for a developing reader. There are five active reading processes, that when directly taught, can be viewed as strategies for comprehending both expository and narrative selections. These strategies include asking questions about what you are reading, making predictions about what may come next, engaging in visualization of what you are reading, recognizing connections between what you are reading and what you have encountered before through reading, listening, viewing, or doing, and finally having a reaction, a response to what you have read. Reading comprehension skills can be directly taught and improve a person's ability to more actively engage in what they are reading and understand selections at a deeper and more abstract level then merely locating and/or recalling details of what they have read.

Active reading strategies are part of a comprehensive, necessary approach to directly teaching reading comprehension. Quality reading comprehension instruction focuses on four important components: Students need many opportunities to read a wide variety of texts. Direct instruction of comprehension strategies is necessary and important. Students should have opportunities for collaborative learning based on reading experiences. Finally, students should interact with each other and a teacher about what they've read. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb94/vol51/num05/Synthesis-of-Research-~-Reading-Comprehension@-What-Works.aspx/ Active reading strategies are a part of this fourth aspect, discussing what has been read.

When students ask questions about what they've read, to each other, and of themselves, they are required to recognize important messages, such as the main idea and supporting details. Formulating questions about these messages demonstrates what they're are thinking in relation to the passage. The interaction prompts others to search the text for information and formulate responses. The other readers would need to cite details to explain their answers. Formulating questions helps provide a framework for how a passage could be understood.

Making predictions is also another source of student interaction and collaboration based on what they have read. Making predictions requires students to cite details in passages and explain their reasoning behind their predictions. This process requires students to recognize relationships between ideas and build a new one based on their combination. Predictions answer the question of what comes next. These also make reading, especially narratives, more enjoyable because it takes on a game quality. Students can keep reading and see whether predictions come true. Identifying causal relationships and other outcomes provide opportunities to check a person's reasoning. It also brings up important literary experiences, such as irony, those unexpected outcomes that both characters and readers do not see coming.

Visualization is also an important active reading process. Visualization is that process in which a reader converts text into mental images. When a reader visualizes text, he or she is tapping into both the verbal and visual-spatial representations that operate in the brain. Making what is abstract into a concrete, more familiar image makes a passage more enjoyable and memorable. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-movies-visualize-reading-comprehension-donna-wilson/ This concept is based on Allan Paivio's Dual Coding Theory. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/dual-coding.html/

When a person reads, they are often reminded of other prior knowledge and experience that they have had. These are called text connections. There are four basic text connections: Text to self (When  a person reads, what they read reminds them of a life experience), text to text (When a person reads, what they read reminds them of something else that they have read), text to world (When a person reads, what they read reminds them of what they have learned in school or in experiences), and finally, text to other (This covers all other possible connections:  When a person reads, what they read reminds them of something they saw or viewed on the Internet, in a movie or song, or perhaps even experienced via a video game). This is an interaction at a much more personal level. When students make connections while reading, they are required to recognize and develop relationships. These discovered relationships enable a reader to build their knowledge base and increase their comprehension. http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/making-connections-30659.html/

Finally, when readers develop a response, they share their reactions to what they have read with others. Part of developing a response requires the reader to offer others an explanation for their reactions. This in turn requires them to cite evidence for their response. By discussing their feelings about what they have read, a reader must clarify the new information consumed by reading. It requires the reader to organize it into a coherent expression of language.

Active reading strategies are all identifiable component of a deeper interaction with reading text. They are part of a natural interaction between the reader and text. Those who have difficulty understanding what they have read can be directly taught these strategies. With frequent practice, a certain level of automaticity may develop, improving a reader's comprehension.