STAR STRATEGIES
As students progress through school, they are asked to read increasingly complex information and graphic texts in their classes. The ability to understand and use the information in these texts is key to a student’s success in learning. Successful students have a collection of strategies to draw upon, and know how to use them in different contexts.
Common Understandings About Reading
Reading is the active process of understanding print and graphic texts. Reading is a thinking process. Effective readers know that when they read, what they read is supposed to make sense. They monitor their understanding, and when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously select and use a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will help them reconnect with the meaning of the text.
Effective readers use strategies to understand what they read before, during, and after reading.
(www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/.../Reading.pdf )
To become more effective readers we use two types of STAR STRATEGIES (DSBN).
Common Understandings About Reading
Reading is the active process of understanding print and graphic texts. Reading is a thinking process. Effective readers know that when they read, what they read is supposed to make sense. They monitor their understanding, and when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously select and use a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will help them reconnect with the meaning of the text.
Effective readers use strategies to understand what they read before, during, and after reading.
(www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/.../Reading.pdf )
To become more effective readers we use two types of STAR STRATEGIES (DSBN).
- Fix-up strategies are used when meaning breaks down. These are found on the page.
- Comprehension strategies are used to assist readers in coming to a deep understanding of the text. These are found off the page.
Sound it out (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They use the strategy sound it out to help them read unfamiliar words. Readers are encouraged to use their knowledge of letters and sounds to decode unfamiliar words. Focus first on beginning, then ending sounds. In the end, good readers will be able to blend all sounds together to successfully decode whole words.
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the first sound?
• Look at the sounds I know.
• This letter sounds like the beginning of...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.2
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the first sound?
• Look at the sounds I know.
• This letter sounds like the beginning of...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.2
Read on (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. Reading on can serve two purposes. When using this strategy for decoding, readers might stop at an unfamiliar word, skip it and read on. They can then return to the word and use the context to decode the word. Alternatively, when using the strategy to improve comprehension, readers might use the additional information gained from reading on to repair a breakdown in understanding.
Encourage readers to think:
• Skip it and read on.
• What word would make sense?
• Does it matter that I don’t know what that word/sentence/paragraph means? (i.e. Does it affect my overall comprehension of the text?)
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.3, 4.1
Encourage readers to think:
• Skip it and read on.
• What word would make sense?
• Does it matter that I don’t know what that word/sentence/paragraph means? (i.e. Does it affect my overall comprehension of the text?)
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.3, 4.1
Reread (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. When rereading, readers check their mind pictures, inferences, and understanding to attempt to make meaning from text. During reflection, readers often return to the text to reread words (process them again) and to gather more information.
Rereading helps readers clear up confusion and improves understanding.
Encourage readers to think:
• Does that make sense?
• Does that sound right?
• Does that look right?
• Where did my comprehension break down?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.3, 4.1
Rereading helps readers clear up confusion and improves understanding.
Encourage readers to think:
• Does that make sense?
• Does that sound right?
• Does that look right?
• Where did my comprehension break down?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.3, 4.1
Fix up your Thinking
Good readers monitor their comprehension as they read and are able to identify when their understanding breaks down. Comprehension problems can be connected to: surface structures (letters, words, grammar) or deep structures (meanings, concepts, prior knowledge). Good readers need to have a well-developed set of tools to use flexibly and independently to solve reading problems effectively.
Fix up strategies include
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 4.1,4.2
Fix up strategies include
- rereading, or reading ahead
- checking the meaning of key words
- making a picture in your mind
- stopping and thinking about what’s already been read
- adjusting the pace - noticing patterns in the text
- retelling what’s been read
- using text features (bolded text, headings, etc.)
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 4.1,4.2
Look at the Marks (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. The readers need to know how simple punctuation such as periods, question marks, commas, quotation marks, and exclamation marks affect meaning. This knowledge will also help in the development of reading fluency and expression.
Period . (Stop)
Comma , (Rest - take a breath)
Question Mark ? (Voice goes up)
Exclamation Mark ! (Excitement)
Encourage readers to think:
• What does this punctuation mean?
• How do I read a sentence with this punctuation?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.3
Period . (Stop)
Comma , (Rest - take a breath)
Question Mark ? (Voice goes up)
Exclamation Mark ! (Excitement)
Encourage readers to think:
• What does this punctuation mean?
• How do I read a sentence with this punctuation?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.3
Find Little Words in Big Words (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They find little words in big words in order to ‘break the code’ of texts. Readers need to find words and common clusters of sounds (e.g. ‘ake’, ‘at’, ‘ate’) to help with decoding.
Encourage readers to think:
• Does that word look like another word I know?
• Can I find a little word hiding in the big word?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.2, 3.3
Encourage readers to think:
• Does that word look like another word I know?
• Can I find a little word hiding in the big word?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 3.2, 3.3
Does it Make Sense? (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They use semantic (meaning) cues to construct meaning from text. Meaning cues come from a reader’s prior knowledge of reading words, as well as from illustrations in a text. Using context and schema (prior knowledge) will help readers infer the meaning of text.
Encourage readers to think:
Encourage readers to think:
- What do I know about this topic already?
- What would help me understand this text?
- What prediction can I make about this text?
- Show where in the text it says that...
- Show where the author indicated that...
- Did that make sense?
Look at the Pictures (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They look at the pictures and/or illustrations to help them read and understand text. Readers are encouraged to look carefully at the images within text to help decode unfamiliar words and to make meaning.
Encourage readers to think:
• Do I see any clues in the picture?
• Does this word make sense with the picture?
• Why did the illustrator draw this?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 2.3
Encourage readers to think:
• Do I see any clues in the picture?
• Does this word make sense with the picture?
• Why did the illustrator draw this?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 2.3
Does it Sound Right? (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They use syntactic (structural) cues to create meaning from text. Structural cues come from a reader’s knowledge of language patterns and grammatical structure, especially the patterns and structure of oral language. Readers learn that text is “talk written down.”
Encourage readers to think:
• When a word is left out, how do I know what word fits in the text?
• Have I heard that phrase/language (e.g., Once upon a time...) before?
• Did that sound right?
• What is another word that would fit here that looks right and makes sense?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.2
Encourage readers to think:
• When a word is left out, how do I know what word fits in the text?
• Have I heard that phrase/language (e.g., Once upon a time...) before?
• Did that sound right?
• What is another word that would fit here that looks right and makes sense?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 3.2
Does it Look Right? (Fix-up strategy)
Good readers monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when necessary. They use graphophonic (visual) cues to decode text. Visual cues come from a reader’s knowledge of: the relationship between letters seen in print and the sounds heard in oral language; letter patterns; word families; and sight words.
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the first letter/sound of the word?
• What sound does that letter (or combination of letters) make?
• What other words start with that letter and would fit into this sentence?
• Can the letters help me?
• Did I use what I know about letters and sounds?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum 2006 expectation: Reading 3.2
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the first letter/sound of the word?
• What sound does that letter (or combination of letters) make?
• What other words start with that letter and would fit into this sentence?
• Can the letters help me?
• Did I use what I know about letters and sounds?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum 2006 expectation: Reading 3.2
Synthesize
Good readers take information and ideas from texts and combine, integrate and/or connect these with their schema (prior knowledge) to create new understandings. Synthesizing is a higher-order thinking skill and should be explicitly taught and practiced in all curricular areas.
Encourage readers to think:
• To me, the information in this text means...
• This information fits with what I already know about...
• My new learning from this text is ...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.6
Encourage readers to think:
• To me, the information in this text means...
• This information fits with what I already know about...
• My new learning from this text is ...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.6
Infer
When inferring, readers interpret information that is not explicitly stated in the text. Readers use their schema (prior knowledge) combined with clues in the text to make inferences.
Encourage readers to think:
• It says... I think...therefore...
• I can conclude that...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.5
Encourage readers to think:
• It says... I think...therefore...
• I can conclude that...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.5
Picture it
Good readers create images in their minds to enhance their understanding of text. Readers need to know that authors ‘show’ as well as ‘tell.’ To improve comprehension readers should form sensory images in their heads.
Encourage readers to think:
• What did I see when I read those words?
• What does it look like in my mind? Does this match the information in the text?
• What words help me make that picture?
• How has my picture changed since I started this story? What words helped?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3
Encourage readers to think:
• What did I see when I read those words?
• What does it look like in my mind? Does this match the information in the text?
• What words help me make that picture?
• How has my picture changed since I started this story? What words helped?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3
Make Connections
Good readers connect what they already know to what they encounter in texts. They draw on their personal experiences (text-to-self connections), their knowledge of the world (text-to-world connections), and their previous experiences with texts (text-to-text connections).
Encourage readers to think:
• This reminds me of ...
• This author always ...
• This is the same as...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.6
Encourage readers to think:
• This reminds me of ...
• This author always ...
• This is the same as...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.6
Determine what’s Important
Good readers determine the difference between what information is essential and what is simply detail in the texts they read. Determining importance for fiction is usually related to the author’s message and the story elements. Students need to look at the overall text, the sentences, words and pictures to determine what is important. In nonfiction texts, readers need to remember key ideas and should observe visuals as well as the conventions of nonfiction (i.e., why authors chose to bold certain words) to determine importance.
Encourage readers to think:
• What was the most important idea?
• What is essential to remember?
• What do I think the author is trying to tell me?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.4
Encourage readers to think:
• What was the most important idea?
• What is essential to remember?
• What do I think the author is trying to tell me?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.4
Retell/Summarize
Good readers retell text effectively by: identifying key facts with important details, using vocabulary from the text, making connections, and restating the information in an order that makes sense. Good readers use a number of thinking skills to summarize text. They combine meanings, delete unimportant details, condense key messages and incorporate their schema (prior knowledge) to create an accurate summary of text.
Encourage readers to think:
• What happened first, next, finally?
• What key information did the author provide?
• What did I learn from the text?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.4
Encourage readers to think:
• What happened first, next, finally?
• What key information did the author provide?
• What did I learn from the text?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.4
Evaluate
Evaluating involves using schema (prior knowledge) to make a reasoned judgment about texts based on specific criteria. Good readers evaluate to make meaning and to think critically about what’s been read. Evaluating is a higher-order thinking skill and needs to be explicitly taught and practiced in all curricular areas.
Encourage readers to think:
• What changes would I recommend to ...?
• I like this because...
• Would I have done the same as ...?
• This information seems correct/incorrect because...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.8
Encourage readers to think:
• What changes would I recommend to ...?
• I like this because...
• Would I have done the same as ...?
• This information seems correct/incorrect because...
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectations: Reading 1.3, 1.8
Predict
Predict Readers need to use their schema (prior knowledge) and information in the text to think about what will follow while reading. Before reading, good readers read the title, look at the illustrations, read the author’s biography and the text’s covers. Predicting helps readers connect with the text.
Encourage readers to think:
Encourage readers to think:
- What do I know about this book already?
- What do I think this book might be about?
- What do I think will happen?
- What makes me think that?
Question
Good readers ask and answer questions before, during and after reading, based on clues found in the text. In addition, they know that some answers will be found in the text, while others will not. If questions are not answered within the text, then additional reading strategies must be employed (e.g. infer, synthesize, evaluate).
Encourage readers to ask and answer both lower and higher level questions using starters such as:
Who ...? What ...? Where ...? Why ...? When ...? How ...?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3
Encourage readers to ask and answer both lower and higher level questions using starters such as:
Who ...? What ...? Where ...? Why ...? When ...? How ...?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3
Activate your Schema
Good readers activate schema (prior knowledge) to provide direction and focus to their reading. This focus enhances reading comprehension. If readers lack the schema necessary to be able to comprehend text effectively, then teachers should build schema by: reading various texts aloud; facilitating discussions; showing a video; or taking students on a trip.
Encourage readers to think:
Encourage readers to think:
- What do I know about ...?
- Have I ever ...?
- Think about ..
Think like an Author
This strategy emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing. Good readers think about the author’s: purpose, audience, form, style (including traits), motivation, and bias to come to sound conclusions about texts. Once students are able to adeptly identify and describe the author’s craft, they will be able to use this knowledge in their own writing.
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the purpose of this text?
• For whom is this text written?
• What are the author’s intentions?
• What ____ (e.g. trait) does the author use to show ...?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Encourage readers to think:
• What is the purpose of this text?
• For whom is this text written?
• What are the author’s intentions?
• What ____ (e.g. trait) does the author use to show ...?
Revised Ontario Language curriculum (2006) expectation: Reading 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4