Fix-up Strategies

Thinking About How You Read

As we go through these slides, I will show you examples from my college psychology textbook!

Metacognition:
Thinking About How You Think
Before you can truly improve your reading skills, you need to understand what happens in good readers minds while they read.

You may even do these things already. You just dont know ityet.

Metacognition

Continued

Good readers have developed helpful strategies for reading. Strategies help readers understand, connect to, and determine the importance of what they are reading.

They also visualize, ask questions about, and read between the lines of their text.

Why Use Strategies?

Strategies are your plan of attack when reading.

Strategies help you realize HOW you are thinking so that you can think more deeply and more consciously. What strategies do you use when you read?

Signs that you are not comprehending the text

The pictures inside your mind stop forming or moving. Your questions and inferences are not getting answered. Your mind wanders from the text; you read it but are thinking about something else. The current page has nothing to do with what you thought the big picture or authors purpose was for the text. You cannot summarize the last few paragraphs or pages. Characters appear and you cannot remember who they are.

Word Attack
1. Look at the pictures - use the pictures to get information that may help you figure out the word

2. Sound blending

3. Use a Dictionary

(look at the beginning letters, look at the ending letters)

4. Read Aloud 5. Ask for help

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

Make a Connection Make a Prediction Stop and Think about what you have already read Ask a Question Reflect in Writing Visualize Use Text Features Retell what youve read Reread Notice Patterns in Text Structure Adjust Your Reading Rate

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

1. Make a connection
How does your. Connect with Yourself

Other texts

Text

The world

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

2. Make a Prediction
As you read, think about what might happen next. You should constantly be making inferences and predictions about the plot! When an event doesnt match a prediction, good readers rethink and revise their thinking.

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

3. Stop and Think About What You Have Already Read

Every so often, stop and think about what you have read.
** If you dont remember anything you have read, why continue? Pause and summarize in your head.

Stopping and thinking gives readers time to synthesize new information. It allows them to ask questions, visualize, and determine what is important in the text.

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

4. Ask questions
If you ask questions as you read, you will be more actively engaged with the text. You will be looking for answers to your questions, and will remember what you read.

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

5. Reflect

in Writing

Writing down what they think about what theyve read allows readers to clarify their thinking. It is an opportunity to reflect. Readers better understand their reading when they have written about it. The writing may be a summary or a response. Sometimes just jotting down a few notes will clarify meaning.

Comprehension Fix-Up Strategies

6. Visualize
Good readers create images in their head to help them make sense of what the words are saying.

They use movies, television, and life to help them picture what is happening.

When a reader can visualize what is happening, comprehension improves.

7. Use Text Features

Bold Print

Key Words
Italicized Words

Punctuation!!

CAPITAL LETTERS

Text Features help the author convey intent. They help the reader determine what is important and what the author values. Text features give the reader insight into voice and how the author wants the piece to sound.

8. Retell what youve read

Taking a moment to retell what has been read helps you to reflect on the text.

When readers cant retell what they read, it is an indication that their mind has wandered and confusion has set in.

8. Reread the text

BUTyou dont have to reread everything! Sometimes rereading a portion of the text a sentence, or even just a word can help you understand.

It is OK to reread text that youve already read.

9. Notice Patterns in Text Structure Most texts have specific organizational patterns.
Recognizing how a piece is organized helps readers locate information more quickly.

10. Adjust Your Reading Rate

*It is okay to read faster when something is familiar. *Slow down when the material gets difficult!

Good readers select a rate based on the difficulty of the material, their purpose in reading it, and their familiarity with the topic.

Ask for Help

If the fix-up strategies arent working or you dont know which one to useask for help!

REMEMBER:
You may be using some or all of these strategies already. You just may not know it. However, as you learn to read more complicated materials, you WILL NEED to use these strategies purposefully. SO PRACTICE!