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What are the Comprehension Strategies?
Research has shown that a major aspect of reading instruction is transforming comprehension skills into explicit strategies we teach to students (Simmons & Kameenui, 1998). Children need to learn to use comprehension strategies before, during, and after they read. Tutors need to explicitly model comprehension strategies and help students understand when and how to use them (Honig et al., 2000).
The comprehension strategies. Research strongly supports the following strategies (Allington, 2001; Armbruster et al., 2001; Farstrup & Samuels, 2002):
- Activating prior knowledge
- Answering and generating questions
- Making and verifying predictions
- Using mental imagery and visualization
- Monitoring comprehension
- Recognizing story structure
The tutor's role. Pearson and Duke (2002) outline the components of effective comprehension lessons. When you work on a comprehension strategy with your tutee, be sure to:
- Provide an explicit description of the strategy and when it should be used
- Model the strategy
- Collaboratively use the strategy in action
- Guide your tutee in practice using the strategy
- Allow the student to use the strategy independently
 Activating Prior Knowledge
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