Inside This Week’s Episode: — Using reading comprehension strategies is a MUST-DO to help develop stronger, more proficient readers. But how can we approach reading comprehension strategy instruction in a way that will actually encourage students to use these strategies in a meaningful way? Tune in to this week’s episode for an interactive approach to teaching reading strategies.

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE A GREAT READER?

Ask any elementary student and you’d likely hear responses like:

“Great readers can read fast.”

“Great readers use expression.”

“Great readers can read all the words correctly.”

These answers are all correct, however, we want students to understand that reading is more than just being able to read the words on the page.  What we really want students to be doing while they read is thinking!

That’s where reading comprehension strategies come in.  Reading strategy instruction gives students a guideline for how to think about what they are reading.  Educational experts call this “metacognition,” which can be defined as “thinking about thinking.”  This concept is at the heart of why we teach and encourage students to use reading strategies.  Students need to understand that thinking is essential to reading.

This week’s episode is one of my most popular and downloaded episodes from the podcast, so I’m proving this encore performance. It’s the first episode in a series of episodes on reading comprehension strategies. So, if you’ve been struggling with how to approach reading comprehension instruction, this is your starting point!

I can’t wait to share with you some tools and some strategies that you can pass on to your students to help improve their reading comprehension.

Buckle up as I share with you some helpful tips, strategies, and resources for teaching your students reading comprehension. 

Here’s what You’ll Learn:

• The difference between skill and strategy

• Why we teach reading strategies

• The 7 main reading comprehension strategies

  • Making Connections

  • Visualizing

  • Predicting

  • Asking Questions

  • Determining Importance

  • Inferring

  • Synthesizing

• The book that basically taught me everything I know about reading comprehension strategies

• How to introduce strategies (and why you should introduce them all together)

• How to model reading strategies

• What a mini lesson might look like

• Which order to teach the 7 reading strategies

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode

Reading Comprehension Strategies Podcast Episodes:

• EPISODE 41: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

• EPISODE 42: Reading Comprehension Instruction: How to Teach Making Connections

• EPISODE 47: Reading Comprehension Strategies: How to Teach Visualizing

• EPISODE 51: Reading Comprehension Strategies: How to Teach Making Predictions

• EPISODE 56: Boost Reading Comprehension: A Simple Approach to Teaching Students to Ask Questions While Reading

• EPISODE 59: A Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Determining Importance in the Upper Elementary Classroom

• EPISODE 64: Helping Your Students Make Inferences When They Read

Constructing Meaning Through Kid-Friendly Comprehension Strategy Instruction by Nancy Boyles (affiliate link)

Grab my FREE Reading Comprehension Strategy cards below:

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