User talk:Msilverstein93

Specific Strategies for Reading

Once a student has gained a mastery of metacognitive conversation, then he/she must engage in specific reading strategies.

In order for students to be better readers they must be able to monitor their own comprehension, adjust for their reading processes, and apply a range of cognitive tools. These cognitive tools are specific strategies that students can use to enhance their reading comprehension.

Examples of Reading Strategies:


 * Chunking Text: Breaking a larger piece of text into smaller portions.  Dividing the text into smaller portions will allow students to decipher each section of text individually.   Chunking is especially helpful when students need to comprehend a complex or more advanced piece of writing.  After a reader divides a text into sections they can draw a conclusion of the entire text.  Chunking text makes summarizing much easier because if a reader has already divided a text into portions they will be able to rank these chunks based on importance.


 * Making Connections: Students use their own outside knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of the text.  This background knowledge can include personal experiences, and can even help the reader develop a more defined identity.  The student's background knowledge and experience will provide insight into previewing the text based on it's topic.  Each reader will connect to the text in his/her own way, however many people will share the same connections depending on the text.  An example of this would be the connection that American readers have to the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.
 * Visualizing Text: Painting the picture of the text in your mind.  Visualizing a text can make hard concepts easier to understand by creating a scene based off of the text that's being read.  A student will utilize their own background knowledge in order to create this mental picture.  In creating this mental picture, a student will manipulate the info from the text, and thus view the text in a different way.  Visualizing text is especially helpful when reading something that contains imagery, many people visualize text all the time and they don't even realize.
 * Getting the Gist: Students analyze each piece of text to understand the main idea.  Although this strategy is similar to summarizing, there is a key difference between them.  While summarizing a text categorizes which information is most important, getting the gist is all about an overall understanding of the reading.  In order to get the gist, a student must be able to take away the main concept of an entire piece.  One way to do this would be summing up an entire text in one sentence.  Getting the gist focuses on the overall theme of a text, not ranking the most important ideas.
 * Getting the Gist: Students analyze each piece of text to understand the main idea.  Although this strategy is similar to summarizing, there is a key difference between them.  While summarizing a text categorizes which information is most important, getting the gist is all about an overall understanding of the reading.  In order to get the gist, a student must be able to take away the main concept of an entire piece.  One way to do this would be summing up an entire text in one sentence.  Getting the gist focuses on the overall theme of a text, not ranking the most important ideas.
 * Getting the Gist: Students analyze each piece of text to understand the main idea.  Although this strategy is similar to summarizing, there is a key difference between them.  While summarizing a text categorizes which information is most important, getting the gist is all about an overall understanding of the reading.  In order to get the gist, a student must be able to take away the main concept of an entire piece.  One way to do this would be summing up an entire text in one sentence.  Getting the gist focuses on the overall theme of a text, not ranking the most important ideas.

The Significance of Teaching Students Different Reading Strategies When students come across a comprehension problem when reading a text, they will be able to use these different strategies in order to tackle that problem by themselves. Using either a specific, or combination of these strategies allows a student to be able to decipher even the most difficult of texts. Reading strategies are especially helpful when students are facing a more advanced or challenging text.