Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to En

Since its publication in 2000, “Strategies That Work” has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. This revised and expanded edition contains twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is the inclusion of a section on cross-curriculum literacy which describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum. The new edition is organised around four sections: Part I defines comprehension and how to teach it, including the principles that guide practice, a review of recent research and assessment, describes ways to engage students in purposeful talk through interactive reading aloud, guided discussion and written response; and, Part II contains lessons and practices for teaching comprehension including how to emphasise the importance of teaching students to monitor their understanding before focusing on specific strategies; monitoring to provide a sound basis for launching comprehension instruction; outlines of learning goals and ways to assess students’ thinking; sharing examples of student work, and suggestions for differentiating instruction.Part III, Comprehension Across the Curriculum – Comprehension strategies are essential for reading across the curriculum, where information can be challenging, and presented in unfamiliar formats. Includes chapters on social studies and science reading, topic study research, textbook reading; and, Part IV shows that young people need books they can sink their teeth into and the appendix recommends a rich diet of fiction and non-fiction, short stories, kid’s magazines, websites and journals that will assist teachers as they plan and design comprehension instruction. Teachers will find this a current and essential resource. When using these strategies, pupils will enjoy a more complete, thoughtful reading experience. The goal is to engage readers – and when young people are engaged in their reading their understanding is enhanced, they acquire knowledge, and learn from and remember what they read. And best yet, they will want to read more!