Teaching Reading Strategies, School and Educational Psychology

 Reading strategies are techniques or methods that readers use to acquire information, or procedures or activities chosen to facilitate the process of reading comprehension. They are flexible plans adapted to different situations that vary according to the text to be read and the approach previously elaborated by the reader to facilitate their understanding (Duffy & cols., 1987; Brown, 1994; Pellegrini, 1996; Kopke, 2001). 

Duke and Pearson (2002) identified six types of reading strategies that research has suggested as aids in the comprehension process, namely: prediction, thinking out loud, text structure, visual representation of the text, summary, and questioning. The prediction implies anticipate, predict facts or text content using existing knowledge to facilitate understanding.

Thinking out loud is when the reader verbalizes his thought while reading. Improvement in students' understanding has been demonstrated when they themselves dedicate themselves to this practice during reading and also when teachers routinely use this same strategy during their classes.

The analysis of the textual structure helps students to learn to use the characteristics of the texts, such as scenario, problem, goal, action, results, resolution, and theme, as an auxiliary procedure for understanding and remembering the content read. The visual representation of the text, in turn, helps readers to understand, organize and remember some of the many words read when they form a mental image of the content.

Summarizing the information in the text facilitates the global understanding of the text, as it implies the selection and highlighting of the most relevant information in the text. Questioning the text helps in understanding the content of the reading since it allows the reader to reflect on it. Research also indicates that global reading comprehension is better when students learn to ask questions about the text.

In addition, the use of reading strategies comprises three moments: the before, the during, and the after reading. In pre-reading, a global analysis of the text (title, topics, and figures/graphics) is made, predictions, and also the use of prior knowledge. During the reading, an understanding of the message passed through the text is made, a selection of the relevant information, a relationship between the information presented in the text, and an analysis of the predictions made before the reading, to confirm or refute them. After reading, an analysis is made in order to review and reflect on the content read, that is, the importance of reading, the meaning of the message, the application to solve problems, and the verification of different perspectives presented for the theme. A reading discussion is also held,

It is important to remember that reading strategies also help in the study, favoring the achievement of a better level of understanding. They require the active participation of the reader, which can be applied to any type of text and at any time of reading, with or without external help Oakhill and Garnham (1988).

Considering these aspects, the teaching of reading strategies opens up new perspectives for enhancing reading, allowing students to overcome personal and environmental difficulties in order to achieve greater school success. These can and should be taught in the early grades of elementary school.

The teacher plays a very important role in providing not only reading learning but also in proposing technical models and procedures that provide reading comprehension. The teaching process would be a way to enable the student to develop conceptual and procedural structures that implement his performance.

Among the reading strategies that teachers can teach is to focus students' attention on the main ideas; ask students questions about their understanding to help you monitor their understanding; relate students' prior knowledge to new information; teachers can question and assign feedback to help students apply appropriate study techniques and strategies; they can train students to use these strategies and techniques more effectively; use positive verbal and written reinforcements with students who have low comprehension; students can be asked questions to help recognize the contradiction between what he really knows and what he thought he knew, but does not know; in addition to considering the variety of texts structured in the preparation of texts for students and lesson plan.

As an example of an instruction model that consists of 4 steps. In the first - What - the teacher informs the types of reading strategy that can be used. In the second stage - Why - the teacher tells the student why the comprehension strategy is important and how the acquisition can help to become a better reader. The third step - How - involves direct instruction of the strategy. It may involve verbal explanation, model, or thinking out loud. And the fourth stage - When - involves communicating when the strategy should be used or not, and how to evolve and correct its use.

Another way is to teach specific strategies, as did Song (1998) in his study. The professor of a foreign language reading class at a university taught how to summarize, question, clarify and predict. The students, in turn, received a practical guide in which they scored when they were able to use them alone. The result of this work indicated that the strategy training was effective to improve reading and that the effect varied with the subject's initial reading proficiency. In addition, it was possible to identify improvement in the students' general reading performance.

Several types of research on the teaching of reading strategies have found that this is an effective action for not only students with difficulty in understanding, but also for skilled readers (Song, 1998; Magliano, Trabasso & Graesser, 1999; Rhoder, 2002; Ferreira & Dias; 2002). It should be noted that the school psychologist may be responsible for evaluating and advising teachers to carry out this teaching activity.

Learn More Activity Link

 References

Brown, D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs. [  Links  ]

Duffy, GG, Roehler, LR, Sivan, E., Rackliffe, G., Book, C., Meloth, M., Vavrus, L., Wesselman, R., Putnam, J. & Bassiri, D. (1987). The effects of explaining the reasoning associated with using reading strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 347-368. [  Links  ]

Duke, NK & Pearson, PD (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In AE Farstrup & SJ Samuels (Orgs.), What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (3rd ed. P.205-242). Newark: International Reading Association. [  Links  ]

Ferreira, SPA & Dias, MGBB (2002). Reading comprehension: strategies for taking notes and mental image. Psychology Theory and Research, 18 (1), 51-62. [  Links  ]

Kopke, HF (1997). Strategies to develop metacognition and the understanding of theoretical texts at the university. School and Educational Psychology, 1 (2 and 3), 59-67. [  Links  ]

Kopke, HF (2001). Reading comprehension strategies: knowledge and use by Portuguese language teachers. Doctoral thesis in linguistics. Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo. Sao Paulo. [  Links  ]

Magliano, JP, Graesser, A., & Trabasso, T. (1999). Strategic processing during comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 9 (4), 615-629. [  Links  ]

Oakhill, J. & Garnham, A. (1988). Becoming a skilled Reader. NY: Basil Blackwell Ltd. [  Links  ]

Pellegrini, MCK (1996). Evaluation of comprehension levels and attitudes towards reading in university students. Masters dissertation. Faculty of Human Sciences, São Francisco University, Bragança Paulista. [  Links  ]

Rhoder, C. (2002). Mindful reading: strategy training that facilitates transfer. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45 (6), 498-512. [  Links  ]

Song, M. (1998). Teaching reading strategies is ongoing. EFL University Reading Classroom. Journal of English language Teaching. Seoul National University, 8, 41-54. [  Links  ]