Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension!

1. Reviewing comprehension after reading
Students who are good at reviewing their comprehension after reading, know when they understand what they read and when they did not. Students who check their comprehension, develop strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:

• Be aware of what they do understand
• Identify what they do not understand
• Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension

2. Thinking about Reading
Good readers use strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they might have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.

3. Graphics for support!
Maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames or clusters of images can be used to illustrate relationships in a text. Regardless of which you choose, graphics can help readers focus and illustrate how they are related to their reading. Graphics also help students read and understand textbooks and chapter books with longer text.
Graphic organizers can:

• Help students focus on text structure "differences between fiction and nonfiction" as they read
• Provide students with tools they can use to examine and show relationships in a text
• Help students write well-organized summaries of a text

4. Answering questions
Questions can be effective because they:

• Give students a purpose for reading
• Focus students' attention on what they are supposed to learn
• Help students to think actively as they read
• Encourage students to keep track of their comprehension after reading.
• Help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know

The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. It is a great option for questions after reading! Here are four different types of questions you can try!

• "Right There"

Questions found right in the text that ask students to find the right answer located explicitly in the passage.
Example: Who is Frog's friend? Answer: Toad

• "Think and Search"

Questions based on the recall of facts that can be found directly in the text. Answers are typically found in more than one place, thus requiring students to "think" and "search" through the passage to find the answer.
Example: Why was Frog sad? Answer: His friend was leaving.

• "Author and You"

Questions require students to use what they already know, with what they have learned from reading the text. Student's must understand the text and relate it to their prior knowledge before answering the question.
Example: How do think Frog felt when he found Toad? Answer: I think that Frog felt happy because he had not seen Toad in a long time. I feel happy when I get to see my friend who lives far away.

• "On Your Own"

Questions are answered based on a student’s prior knowledge and experiences. Reading the text may not be helpful to them when answering this type of question.
Example: How would you feel if your best friend moved away? Answer: I would feel very sad if my best friend moved away because I would miss her.

5. Recognizing story structure
In story structure instruction, students learn to identify the content of their reading (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Often, students learn to recognize story structure through the use of story maps. Prioritization in the story structure improves students' comprehension.

7. Summarizing
Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words. Instruction in summarizing helps students:

• Identify or generate main ideas
• Connect the main or central ideas
• Eliminate unnecessary information
• Remember what they read

Effective comprehension depends on good strategy instructions!
Research shows that teaching techniques are very important for instructing comprehension strategies  when a student is done reading. During instruction, teachers or tutors tell readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps of instruction typically include direct explanation, teacher modeling ("thinking aloud"), guided practice, and application. Examples:

• Direct explanation

The teacher explains to students why this helps comprehension and when to apply the specific strategy.

• Modeling

The teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using.

• Guided practice

The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy.

• Application

The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently.