Classroom Strategies
Explicit strategy instruction is at the core of good comprehension instruction. "Before" strategies activate students' prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. "During" strategies help students make connections, monitor their understanding, generate questions, and stay focused. "After" strategies provide students an opportunity to summarize, question, reflect, discuss, and respond to text.
Teachers should help students to understand why a strategy is useful, how it is used, and when it is appropriate. Teacher demonstration and modeling are critical factors for success, and student discussion following strategy instruction is also helpful.
The most frequently researched strategies can be applied across content areas; other content-area specific strategies are emerging, and we will include them here in the future.
| Reading | Writing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Comprehension | ||
| Before | |||
| Anticipation Guide | X | X | |
| Collaborative-Strategic-Reading Learning Logs | X | ||
| Concept Sorts | X | X | |
| First Lines | X | ||
| Frayer Model | X | ||
| List-Group-Label | X | X | |
| Listen-Read-Discuss | X | ||
| Mnemonics | X | X | X |
| Peer-Assisted Learning Strategy (PALS) | X | X | X |
| Possible Sentences | X | X | X |
| Think Alouds | X | ||
| Think-Pair-Share | X | ||
| During | |||
| Concept Maps | X | X | |
| Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) | X | ||
| Double-Entry Journals | X | X | |
| Inferential Reading | X | ||
| Inquiry Chart | X | X | |
| Jigsaw | X | ||
| Monitoring/Clarifying | X | ||
| Paired Reading | X | ||
| Paragraph Shrinking | X | X | X |
| Partner Reading | X | ||
| Power Notes | X | ||
| Prediction Relay | X | ||
| Reading Guides | X | X | X |
| Reciprocal Teaching | X | X | X |
| Seed Discussions | X | ||
| Selective Highlighting | X | X | |
| Semantic Feature Analysis | X | X | |
| Story Maps | X | ||
| Structured Notetaking | X | X | X |
| SQ3R | X | ||
| Word Hunts | X | X | X |
| After | |||
| Exit Slips | X | X | |
| Frame Routine | X | ||
| Question the Author | X | ||
| Question-Answer Relationship | X | X | |
| RAFT Writing | X | X | |
| Summarizing | X | X | |
