Proficient Reader Strategies:
Nine Goals
Metacognition is a powerful tool for understanding reading and improving reading comprehension, and can be used by all teachers and in every classroom where reading occurs and comprehension is a component of instructional outcomes (Block & Pressley, 2002; Israel, Block, Kinnucan-Welsch, & Bauserman, 2005). Metacognition is defined as thinking about one's own thinking (Flavell, 1979).
"Metacognitive Assessment Strategies," Israel, Bauserman, and Block, Thinking Classroom: A Journal of the IRA,Volume 6, Number 2, April 2005.
In the 1980s, researchers identified a list of proficient reader strategies. In 1992, Pearson et al. advanced the understanding of teaching comprehension by studying how to teach children to use the strategies. Later, in their book Mosaic of Thought: Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop (1997), Keene and Zimmerman added sensory imaging to the list.
When working with my students, I identify 9 goals - 9 units of study. Students use several strategies at once naturally and should not be limited to discussing one strategy only. Whereas the proficient reader strategies cannot be taught in isolation, it is helpful to identify a strategy a month on which to focus. It takes 4-6 weeks to study ONE strategy. Students need the in-depth study. There is so much to talk about and never enough time! The teacher should use mini-lessons and small groups to teach, demonstrate and investigate together how to use these strategies. Eventually, students understand the reading strategies and have the confidence to know when to apply each one.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are in a school where many or all teachers are setting up proficient reader classrooms, you will no longer need this monthly timeline. When your kids come to you with a great working understanding of a strategy, you will only need to fine-tune with harder texts. That will give you more time to work on the more difficult strategies like determining importance and synthesis. And remember, THERE IS NO ORDER FOR TEACHING THESE STRATEGIES. Since we use them all at once anyway, create a timeline that works for you.
- Children will use a variety of fix-up strategies to read unfamiliar words. Students will learn to pronounce words, determine meanings in context, and figure out words using knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes, among other strategies. They will learn to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Sometimes that results from figuring out how to pronounce the word. Sometimes that is by inferring from context. Of the two skills, students need to know that figuring out the meaning is more important.
- Children will deepen their comprehension by accessing their prior knowledge before reading a selection. While reading, they will learn to make connections from the text to themselves, the text to other texts and movies, and the text to world. By recognizing what is unknown in the text and thinking about what is known from personal experience, other texts and the world, the reader will build confidence in using personal connections to get meaning from what was originally unknown. By explaining how these connections help them understand the text, their comprehension will improve.
- Students will build on their knowledge of retelling to recall important details. Students will learn to discern what is most important to use in the retelling.
- Students will learn to summarize a small selection in as few words as possible. Students will break longer selections into smaller parts and summarize as they read. By summarizing in this headline-writing fashion, students will begin to sort out main ideas from details of the text.
- Students will learn to ask questions before, during and after reading and to seek answers to deepen their understanding of the text. By bringing their own questions to small groups, students will examine what they don't know and get help in comprehending.
- Students will learn to visualize the details of a text. They will use other sensory images like dramatizing and drawing to help them better understand what they are reading.
- Children will learn to infer (and predict) information before, during, and after reading. Children will learn to distinguish between inferences, assumptions, and opinions by backing up their conclusions with evidence.
- Children will be able to discriminate what is important from what is not. Children will be able to use this information to determine main ideas and themes of texts.
- Students will stop often while reading to synthesize the information gained from texts to form opinions, change perspectives, develop new ideas, find evidence, and, in general, enhance a personal understanding of the concepts presented in a text.
Exceptionally skilled readers never use only one of the strategies described in this model; rather they fluidly coordinate a number of strategies to ensure maximum comprehension of the text.
"Metacognitive Assessment Strategies," Israel, Bauserman, and Block, Thinking Classroom: A Journal of the IRA,Volume 6, Number 2, April 2005.
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