Reading Comprehension Strategies Scheduled Reviews

Carol Brewer
May 18, 2009

Many schools have found great success by teaching their students the Reading Comprehension Strategies. It is known as "The Strategy of the Month". A suggested resource for this instruction is the Reading Assignments Flipchart. This flipchart consists of comprehension strategies that are arranged in order according to a "natural" transition from one strategy to the next. For example, Main Idea and Detail should be modeled and taught first to give the students the strategy of finding key points or details of what is read, heard, and viewed. Text Elements follows and if the students are proficient with finding the Details, they can apply this strategy to locate the Text Elements (Literary Elements and Text Features). The following is the suggested order of instruction:

• Main Idea and Detail

• Text Elements

• Sequencing

• Cause and Effect

• Inference

• Compare and Contrast

• Fact and Opinion

A suggested Scheduled Review for these strategies is to combine them to strengthen the understanding. For example, after teaching sequencing and cause and effect, students are given the event of a story on an index card. Together, with their group, they identify the cause and effect of the event. The reporter of the group stands up and shares the event for the class to sequence. The group arranges themselves according to the sequence and shares the cause and effect of the event. 
 
Teachers can use this idea during grade level meetings to start a brainstorming session for Scheduled Review. Think of the strategies that have been taught and how to combine them to strengthen the understanding.

See Reading Comprehension 2-5 and 6-12 in the LEARNING-FOCUSED Literacy Collection.