The Importance of Reading Strategies

We often hear that readers need to use strategies when they read. While this phrase is used often, it does not always mean the same thing. No matter how the phrase is used, it’s super important your child is a strategic reader who uses strategies in an effective way to understand a text. Let’s take a look at what it means for your child to be a strategic reader.

Complexity of Reading

Reading is such a complex process. When we read, we take the markings on the page (letters), interpret them, and translate them into language that we combine into units of meaning. Once we have an understanding of how the words or sentences go together in a text, we then need to think about what that means as the reader. We need to think about the message being delivered by the words on the pages, we need to think about what we know and how we feel about the topic, and we need to think about how it changes our perception of others and/or the word.  

While I have heard many definitions of reading strategies, I prefer the way Jen Serravallo describes strategies in her book The Reading Strategies Book, she compares reading strategies to her favorite recipes – “they teach you how to accomplish something that is not yet automatic in a broken down, step-by-step manner” (p. 8). She also states, “strategies make the often invisible work of reading actionable and visible” (p. 8). Reading strategies can help your child develop efficient systems or processes for making meaning out of texts.

Shoe Tying and Reading?

In Guided Reading 2e., Fountas and Pinnell compare teaching a child to read and teaching a child to tie their shoes. If you have taught someone to tie their shoe (or any other action far less complex than reading), you know that simply explaining or demonstrating the process will be of little help.

I personally thought it would be really easy to teach my daughter to tie her shoes. I demonstrated and explained. I helped her practice by holding her hands on the laces and letting her feel the movement as I tied the laces. I taught her a rhyme about bunny ears. I provided ample time to practice and yet she still didn’t get it.

I realized that the way I tied my shoes may not work for her. Since I only know one way to tie shoes, I found some YouTube videos of shoe tying. We watched them. She tried to practice as they explained. That didn’t work either.

As a last result, I ordered a book about shoe tying. This book (which is no longer available) taught an overview of tying and then four different methods. She attempted each method and since she had so much practice with trying different ties, when she attempted one of the descriptions in the book, it worked instantaneously. She was so excited. She practiced over and over.

Throughout this entire process, my daughter was immersed in the experience. She held the laces, practiced different holds, tried different ties, and felt the strength of her knots. As Fountas and Pinnell encourage, we made the experience enjoyable while encouraging perseverance. This is key to success. The shoe tying metaphor can be applied to helping your child read – children need to be fully immersed in texts and use everything they know to make meaning from them. Additionally, the goal was never for her to learn different holds or methods (strategies), the goal was for her to be able to successfully to her shoes- just like it is with reading. The strategies are not the goal, being a skilled reader who understands what they are reading and reads with fluency is the goal.

Misconception About Strategies

A common misconception is that children learn to use specific reading strategies in isolation and at different grades/ages. For example, you may often hear that children are learning to solve words in first and second grade and in fourth grade they are learning to analyze. Actually, we want every reader to develop a repertoire of strategies they can use as they read no matter what they are reading. Their repertoire will expand and become more sophisticated as they become a better reader.

Major Strategies to Support

Considering the complexities of reading, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell noticed patterns in strategies readers use and grouped them into twelve major categories they call strategic actions of readers. (Note: Some programs or educators call these Skills) Categorizing strategies in this way can help teachers, parents, and tutors make sure the readers we work with are paying attention to and thinking about the text as a whole. Fountas and Pinnell emphasize that all of the strategic action categories are important and used simultaneously as the reader reads and processes the text they are reading.  For smooth and comprehensive reading, the reader needs to orchestrate the actions efficiently.

Strategic Actions

Here are Fountas and Pinnell’s twelve categories which are divided into three major groups:

Thinking within the Text

• Searching for and using information – this is when your child notices and uses the words, the images, the meaning, and the way the text is written to read and understand a text.
• Monitoring and self-correcting – this is when your child makes sure they are understanding the text and the fix-up any misunderstandings or words they misread.
• Solving words – this is when your child uses a variety of ways to recognize, figure out, and understand what a word means.
• Maintaining Fluency – this is when your child reads at a good rate with phrasing, pauses, and intonation.
• Adjusting – this is when your child adjusts their reading speed to solve problems or to fit the text.
• Summarizing – this is when your child is able to remember the important information from the text.

Thinking beyond the Text

• Predicting – this is when your child anticipates what may happen next.
• Making Connections – this is when you child connects the text to something they know from their life, other books, movies, documentaries, experiences, etc.
• Synthesizing – this is when your child takes what they know and adjusts it based on the new information/knowledge they are gaining from the text.
• Inferring – this is when your child thinks about what the writer means but has not stated in the text.

Thinking about the Text

• Critiquing – this is when your child thinks critically about the text
• Analyzing – this is when your child notices the writer’s craft (the way these use language to convey meaning, what the author leaves out, and so on)

Within each of these Strategic Actions there are numerous strategies that a child can use to more fluently read and/or better understand what they are reading. Just like in the shoe tying example above, some strategies will work for your child and some won’t. They will outgrow some strategies and need something different as their reading changes. Sometimes we will temporarily need to support them with their strategy use. Check out this post to learn specific prompts you can use to support your child with their strategy use.

In general, here is how you can support for this type of thinking while your child is reading:

Before your child reads:

• Present the book to your child and get them to notice things like
  • The title
  • Cover image
  • Blurb on the back cover
• Provide background information so your child to make connections and interpret what they are reading about in the text. If your child is reading a series book, you can encourage them to think about what they read in the last book in the series or what they know about how these stories typically go. If your child is reading a nonfiction book, you can talk with them about the topic they are going to be reading about. If they don’t have any experiences with the topic, you could provide them with a brief explanation or description.
• For young readers, help them to get familiar with the language structure. If your child is reading A-D Level books and there is a pattern, you can introduce them to the pattern by reading the first few pages to/with them.
• Help your child notice how the text is organized

When your child is reading:

Check out the page specific to your child’s reading level to see what kinds of work/thinking/problem solving your child should be doing at their current reading ability. Click to learn more: Reading Level Section

• Remind your child of ways they can problem solve when they face a challenge.
• Reinforce when your child successfully problem solves.
• Ask your child to describe how they figured out a tricky part.

After your child reads:

• Ask your child questions that requires them to think within, about, and beyond the text (see above)
• Ask your child to support their thinking with evidence from the text.
• Show your child explicit parts in the text where you can extend their thinking.

Click on the name of each of the strategic actions below to learn more about it and learn specific strategies to support each strategic action.

• Searing for and Using Information 
• Monitoring and Self-Correcting 
• Solving Words 
• Maintaining Fluency 
• Adjusting
• Summarizing
• Predicting
• Making Connections
• Synthesizing
• Inferring
• Critiquing
• Analyzing

References: 

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2011). The continuum of literacy learning, Grades K-8: A guide to teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2016). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children (2^nd edition). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Serravallo, J. (2015). The Reading Strategies Book. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Let me know in the comments where you have the most questions or have the hardest time supporting your child’s strategy use. 

Happy Reading!