Effective Reading Strategies To Develop Skilled Readers

One of my favorite books to use when teaching reading strategies is The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. It is a wonderful resource for any reading teacher and includes 300 research-based reading strategies to meet any reader's needs. The author, Jennifer Serravallo, compares it to a cookbook of recipes for reading. It is organized by 13 Reading Goals for students in grades K-8, and I will share my favorite strategy for each goal in the book.

Reading Goals:

1. Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers

Strategy: Word Treasure Hunt

Students will read the pictures and the words in a book. First, they will read the pictures to understand the story. Then, go back and hunt for any words or letters they know. This strategy is perfect for students to practice finding sight words or letters they may know in a book.

2. Reading Engagement

Strategy: Prime Yourself with Prior Knowledge

Before reading, students will think about what they already know about the topic, author, or genre. Students will write their prior knowledge on a sticky note. After reading, students will revisit the sticky note and add new knowledge gained from reading the book on a new sticky note. This strategy helps students stay focused and engaged in the book.

3. Print Work

Strategy: Take the Ending Off

When students come to an unfamiliar word with a common ending (for example, -ing, -ed, -er), they will use their fingers to cover up the ending. Next, read the base word or the part of the word that isn't covered. Students will recognize the word right away. Finally, students will add the ending back on to read the whole word.

4. Fluency

Strategy: Reading Partners Help to Smooth it Out

Reading partners can be great fluency teachers by helping and coaching each other. First, choose one book to read during partner time. The book should be placed between the two readers. Students will practice reading in a smooth voice. Each student will take turns being the "reader" or the "coach". After reading, students will give each other feedback.

Prompts:

What can you tell your partner to help him with his fluency?

Tell your partner, "Go back and try that again!"

Tell your partner, "That sounded very smooth."

Tell your partner, The way you read that helped me picture it."

What do you think?

What will you tell your partner?

Make sure you are listening carefully and be ready to give your partner feedback.

5. Comprehension in Fiction (Plot and Setting)

Strategy: Chapter-End Stop Signs (Stop and Jot)

Students will stop and jot about the most important event at the end of each chapter in the book. I like to use sticky notes for this activity. At the end of the book, students will reread their sticky notes to remember the most important event. This will help students with retelling the story. This strategy is used with chapter books, but I use this strategy with picture books as well. I give students three sticky notes for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Students stop and jot after the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After reading, students will go back and reread their sticky notes. This strategy will help beginning readers who are struggling with retelling a story.

6. Comprehension (Characters)

Strategy: Feelings Change

Students will think about how a character changes throughout a book and what happens to cause the feelings to change. Ask students to think about how the character is feeling at the beginning, middle, and end of the story by looking closely at the words and pictures. Students will use a word or a quick sketch to describe it on a sticky note. After reading, look at all of the sticky notes and explain how the feelings changed.

7. Comprehension (Themes and Ideas)

Strategy: What Can Characters Teach Us?

Remind students that all characters have traits. Students will think about some of the positive traits of a character in a book and create a list. Then think, "What can this character teach me to be a better person?"

8. Comprehension in Nonfiction (Main Topic and Ideas)

Strategy: Boxes and Bullets

Students will draw a box and several bullets beneath on a sticky note or a notebook. The box represents the main topic and the bullets are the supporting details. As students read, they will organize the information and decide if each sentence is a main topic or detail.

9. Comprehension in Nonfiction (Key Details)

Strategy: Read, Cover, Remember, Retell

Students will read as much as they can cover with one hand or a sticky note. Next, they will cover the text they read. Remind students to try to remember what they read and write in their own words. Repeat. This strategy is perfect for students who need to work on slowing down reading to monitor comprehension. It is also great to teach when students are beginning to research.

10. Comprehension (Text Features)

Strategy: Caption It!

Students will read the text, look closely at the photograph or illustration, and create a caption on a sticky note. They will use the information and main text to help write the caption in their own words.

11. Comprehension (Vocabulary and Figurative Language)

Strategy: Use the Just-Right Word (Trait Word Sort)

Think about the words you want students to know for describing character traits and/or feelings and print them on pieces of paper. Have students work in groups to sort the words, thinking about whether the words have a positive or negative connotation. Students will categorize the words using a more common heading. Students can use the chart they created as a resource during their character inference work.

12. Supporting Students' Conversations

Strategy: Sentence Starter Sticks

This strategy helps students keep the conversation moving in a meaningful way. Before the lesson, write sentence starters on popsicle sticks and place them in a can. Students will select a popsicle stick from the can and use the sentence starter to start talking. Make sure that what each student says connects with what the previous student said.

Some sentence starters you might use are:

In addition...

On the other hand...

I agree with you because...

I disagree with you because...

I'd like to add on to what ___ said...

What do you think...?

What do you think about...?

13. Writing

Strategy: Five-Sentence Summary

After reading, students will think about the five most important events from the book, in the order they happened. Students will say them using their five fingers. Next, write them on paper using only one sentence per event. Finally, read the summary.

Prompts:

First...

Next...

Then...

And then...

Finally...

I hope these reading strategies help you meet the needs of your students.

Resource:

Serravallo, J. (2015). The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers. Heinemann.