What Are the Seven Reading Comprehension Strategies?
A “strategy” is a plan developed by a reader to assist in comprehending and thinking about texts, when reading the words alone does not give the reader a sense of the meaning of a text. In recent years, reading comprehension strategy instruction has come to the fore in reading instruction at all age and grade levels. By helping students understand how these flexible tools work, teachers enable readers to tackle challenging texts with greater independence. Strategy instruction is rooted in the work of David Pearson and his colleagues, who studied the processes of proficient readers, and then sought ways to teach these processes to struggling readers. While there is debate about the relative importance of different strategies (or even if some should be deleted from or added to the list), most researchers and practitioners agree about a core set of seven strategies: 1. Activating background knowledge to make connections between new and known information. In many classrooms, this instructi
