Comprehension Strategies
These strategies can be used together or separately.
Making Connections:
According to cognitive learning theory, what students learn and how fast they learn is based on what they already know (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992). Encourage students to recall prior knowledge and/or experiences to help them understand and use that knowledge to make connections to what they are currently reading or listening to.
Visualizing:
Struggling students' ability to monitor and evaluate their own comprehension is enhanced by mental imagery (Gambrell & Bale, 1986).
Creating mental images to help construct meaning is a powerful process as students listen and read by creating mental images and
organizing visual images through a graphic organizer, such as VENN diagram, cause and effect, word web, flow chart, persuasion map, etc.
Inferring:
Using prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations through:
- Reading between the lines
- Drawing conclusions
- Interpreting
- Making predictions
- Reflecting on reading
Determining Importance:
Learning to separate the main ideas from less important details is challenging since students may have a different perspective on the information than instructors do. Since there is too much detail to store in their long-term memories within a reasonable period of time, the following strategies may help students to become proficient at identifying important information:
- Specific objectives or learning outcomes of a chapter
- Underlined or italicized words in a textbook
- Words and diagrams displayed on whiteboard in class
- Various signals present in a lecture (sometimes this is absent, students have to find other ways to identify important information)
Comprehension Monitoring:
Many students don't monitor their comprehension as they learn and may think they understand a concept when they really misunderstand it. Students with the illusion of knowing will actually stop studying prematurely (Omrod, 1999). A strategy for comprehension monitoring is to have students formulate questions before a lesson or reading assignment that they answer as they read or listen. Self-questioning is a strategy that students do throughout a lesson or reading assignment. According to King, 1992; Sires, 1990, students who ask themselves questions as they take notes during a class lecture take better notes, understand the material better, and remember it longer (as cited in Omrod, 1999, p. 332).
See Questioning and Reading Strategies for further information.
According to cognitive learning theory, what students learn and how fast they learn is based on what they already know (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992). Encourage students to recall prior knowledge and/or experiences to help them understand and use that knowledge to make connections to what they are currently reading or listening to.
Visualizing:
Struggling students' ability to monitor and evaluate their own comprehension is enhanced by mental imagery (Gambrell & Bale, 1986).
Creating mental images to help construct meaning is a powerful process as students listen and read by creating mental images and
organizing visual images through a graphic organizer, such as VENN diagram, cause and effect, word web, flow chart, persuasion map, etc.
Inferring:
Using prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations through:
- Reading between the lines
- Drawing conclusions
- Interpreting
- Making predictions
- Reflecting on reading
Determining Importance:
Learning to separate the main ideas from less important details is challenging since students may have a different perspective on the information than instructors do. Since there is too much detail to store in their long-term memories within a reasonable period of time, the following strategies may help students to become proficient at identifying important information:
- Specific objectives or learning outcomes of a chapter
- Underlined or italicized words in a textbook
- Words and diagrams displayed on whiteboard in class
- Various signals present in a lecture (sometimes this is absent, students have to find other ways to identify important information)
Comprehension Monitoring:
Many students don't monitor their comprehension as they learn and may think they understand a concept when they really misunderstand it. Students with the illusion of knowing will actually stop studying prematurely (Omrod, 1999). A strategy for comprehension monitoring is to have students formulate questions before a lesson or reading assignment that they answer as they read or listen. Self-questioning is a strategy that students do throughout a lesson or reading assignment. According to King, 1992; Sires, 1990, students who ask themselves questions as they take notes during a class lecture take better notes, understand the material better, and remember it longer (as cited in Omrod, 1999, p. 332).
See Questioning and Reading Strategies for further information.