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Description: Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text.  They are often structured as a series of statements with which the students can choose to agree or disagree.
Advantages:
~Stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading
~Teach students to make predictions, anticipate the text, and verify their predictions
~Connect new information to prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic
Disadvantages:
-Prior knowledge on the topic is needed
-Time-consuming
Adaptations for ELL:
*Complete the anticipation guides orally
*The number of statements can be modified to suit the learner's needs
*Use simple sentences

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Anticipation Guide | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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An anticipation guide is a comprehension strategy that is used before reading to activate students’ prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text; they’re often structured as a series of s…

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Description: Teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way.
Advantages:
~Helps students learn to determine essential ideas
~Enables students to focus on key words and phrases that are worth noting and remembering
~Teaches students how to take a large selection of a text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding
Disadvantages:
-Students may leave out important details or main idea from the text
-Students may include too much information
Adaptations for ELL:
*Guide students through the summary writing process
*Have students work together to answer summary questions and write responses

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Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in almost every content area.

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Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in almost every content area.

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Description: A cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in one aspect of a topic. Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same aspect, and after mastering the material, return to the "home" group and teach the material to their group members.
Advantages:
~Encourages cooperative learning among students
~Helps improve listening, communication, and problem-solving skills
~Helps build comprehension
Disadvantages:
-The "experts" may communicate inaccurate information
-Confusion may occur during the communicating and teaching phase
Adaptations for ELL:
*Give students experience with small group learning skills beforehand
*Have students fill out a graphic organizer in the "home group" to gather all the information presented by each "expert"

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Jigsaw | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in one aspect of a topic (for example, one group studies habitats of rainforest animals, another group studies predators of rainforest animals).

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Description: Involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts.
Advantages:
~Promotes reading fluency
~Helps readers learn to read aloud with expression
~Helps build reading confidence
Disadvantages:
-Some students may have anxiety about performing for the class
Adaptations for ELL:
*Use easier scripts with fewer words
*Give the students their parts in advance
*When assigning roles, be sensitive to students' needs

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Reader’s theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader’…

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Description: A conclusion made from students' using context clues and their background knowledge. When the text does not explicitly say something, students have to "read between the lines" to try to figure out what the author is meaning.
Advantages:
~It is a "foundational skill" that is a prerequisite for higher-order thinking
~Inference skills are used across the curriculum
Disadvantages:
-Can be difficult for many students since it requires higher order thinking skills
-Difficult to implement if students do not have background experience to relate to a certain topic
Adaptations for ELL:
*Use graphic organizers like the "It says, I say, So" to make the steps from observation to inference more explicit
*Model the observation to inference process over and over again, using real-life examples

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Language Arts

The Question-Answer Relationship strategy helps students understand the different types of questions. By learning that the answers to some questions are "Right There" in the text, that some answers require a reader to "Think and Search," and that some answers can only be answered "On My Own," students recognize that they must first consider the question before developing an answer.

Into the Book has an interactive activity that helps young children learn about inferring. In the interactive, students try to infer meaning in letters from virtual pen pals. They try to answer two questions: "WHERE is your pen pal?" (inferences about location) and "WHO is your pen pal?" (inferences about personality). Students search for clues in the text, then choose from three possible inferences for each clue.

Riddles are one way to practice inferential thinking skills because successful readers make guesses based on what they read and what they already know. The object of this online riddle game is to infer what is being described by the clues you read. See riddle game >

BrainPop offers several activities for teaching inference, and they offer resources for teachers and parents. See inference activities >

Because so many stories contain lessons that the main character learns and grows from, it is important for students to not only recognize these transformations but also understand how the story's events affected the characters. This lesson from ReadWriteThink uses a think-aloud procedure to model how to infer character traits and recognize a character's growth across a text. Students also consider the underlying reasons of why the character changed, supporting their ideas and inferences with evidence from the text. See lesson plan >

Math

The Math Standards from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) identify standards for PreK-12 students that include developing and evaluating inferences and predictions that are based on data. For young students, the standards specifically state the following:

Pre-K-2 Expectations: In pre-K through grade 2, all students should discuss events related to students' experiences as "likely" or "unlikely."

Grades 3-5 Expectations: In grades 3-5, all students should propose and justify conclusions and predictions that are based on data and design studies to further investigate the conclusions or predictions.

Science

Science teachers spend time helping students develop their observation skills. Inferring and observing are closely related, but they are not identical. Observation is what one sees, inference is an assumption of what one has seen. Observation can be said to be a factual description, and inference is an explanation to the collected data. It's not a guess. If an observation can be termed as a close watch of the world around you through the senses, then inference can be termed as an interpretation of facts that has been observed.

Teachers can start out providing simple observations:

As you're working to develop these skills, encourage your students to incorporate their scientific vocabulary into their statements. "From what I observe on the grass, I infer that..."

Learn more about how to use inference, and other science process skills, to help students understand our water resources. More on science process skills >

This strategy guide from Seeds of Science introduces an approach for teaching about how scientists use evidence to make inferences. The guide includes an introductory section about how scientists use evidence to make inferences, a general overview of how to use this strategy with many science texts, and a plan for teaching how scientists gather evidence to make inferences. See teaching inference strategy guide >

This lesson from ReadWriteThink uses science to engage students in the process of making inferences. First, students work through a series of activities about making inferences. Then they read a booklet of descriptions of a series of mystery objects that are placed under a microscope. Finally, they look through each microscope and use the formula of schema + text clues = inference to make their own inferences about the identity of each mystery object. See science lesson plan >

Social Studies

In this Teacher Guide from the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, students use clues in a portrait to infer things about George Washington and his life. They work to identify visual clues the artist used, they compare various portraits of George Washington, and discuss the importance of the different portraits as visual records. See teacher guide >

Often, inferring is introduced to students by using familiar symbols, activities, and environments from which they automatically draw inferences or make predictions (an inference about the future). For example, suppose you are about to begin a unit on the Great Depression. You might have students view a picture of the exterior of a mansion and then of a soup line. Then, through questioning, students focus on details, making inferences about the people who live in both places, their socioeconomic status, the kinds of food they eat, the kinds of activities they pursue.

Parents can help to build these skills at home. For ideas to share with parents, see our Growing Readers tip sheet, Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions (in English and Spanish).

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Inference | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Observations occur when we can see something happening. In contrast, inferences are what we figure out based on an experience. Helping students understand when information is implied, or not directly stated, will improve their skill in drawing conclusions and making inferences. These skills will be needed for all sorts of school assignments, including reading, science and social studies.

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Description: Before reading, students listen to a short lecture delivered by the teacher. The students then read a text selection about the topic. After reading, there is a group discussion about the topic. During the discussion, students compare and contrast the information from the lecture with the information they read.
Advantages:
~Helps students comprehend material presented orally
~Builds students' prior knowledge before they read a text
~Engages struggling readers in classroom discussions
Disadvantages:
-Time intensive
-Students may struggle during the stage of independent reading of the text
-Ineffective if the teacher does not connect the lecture to the text
Adaptations for ELL:
*Include a graphic organizer of the information you discuss
*Choose specific text you feel your students lack prior knowledge about and need more support with as your LRD text

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The listen-read-discuss strategy helps students comprehend text. Before reading, students listen to a short lecture delivered by the teacher. The students then read a text selection about the topic. After reading, there is a large group discussion or students engage in small group discussions about the topic. During the discussion, students compare and contrast the information from the lecture with the information they read.

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Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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The listen-read-discuss strategy helps students comprehend text. Before reading, students listen to a short lecture delivered by the teacher. The students then read a text selection about the topic. After reading, there is a large group discussion or students engage in small group discussions about the topic.

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Description: Strategy that engages students actively with a text and encourages students to ask questions of the author and the text.
Advantages:
~Students learn more about the text through forming their questions
~Teaches students to critique the author's writing
~Helps students solidify their understanding of a text
~Students create a deeper meaning of the text
Disadvantages:
-Not commonly used with fiction text
-May frustrate students if their questions go unanswered
Adaptations for ELL:
*Have students of varying abilities work together to determine answers to questions
*Engage students in a class discussion about responses to questions

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Questioning the author is a strategy that engages students actively with a text. Rather than reading and taking information from a text, the QtA strategy encourages students to ask questions of the author and the text. Through forming their questions, students learn more about the text. Students learn to ask questions such as: What is the author's message? Does the author explain this clearly? How does this connect to what the author said earlier?

This website shows and example of using the question the author strategy with a common health-related sign that might be read by students.
See example >
Language Arts

Here's a simple, clear description of how students can learn to think, "If I were the author..."
See example >
Social Studies

Here's a short paper that describes how teachers can use the question the author strategy to help students make sense of social studies. Examples are given for elementary age students.

Beck, I.L., & McKeown, M.G., Hamilton, R.L., & Kugan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

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Question the Author | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Questioning the author is a strategy that engages students actively with a text. Rather than reading and taking information from a text, the QtA strategy encourages students to ask questions of the author and the text. Through forming their questions, students learn more about the text.

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Description: Instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions.
Advantages:
~Encourages students to think about their own thought process during reading
~Helps students learn to be actively involved and monitor their comprehension as they read
~Teaches students to ask questions during reading and helps make the text more comprehensible
Disadvantages:
-Requires more classroom time and practice to implement successfully
-Possibility that students will provide incorrect feedback to the other students
Adaptations for ELL:
*Pair a student with lower reading skills with one who is more advanced to work together
*Ask students to write out questions about parts of the story that doesn't make sense to them

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Reciprocal Teaching | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.

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Description: Written student responses to questions teachers pose at the end of a class or lesson.
Advantages:
~Enable teachers to quickly assess students' understanding of the material
~Help students reflect on what they have learned
~Teach students to think critically
Disadvantages:
-May not always have time to administer an exit slip after a lesson
-They are brief and may not tell you enough to help the student
Adaptations for ELL:
*Have a variety of exit slips and differentiate which students get which ones
*Allow students to work on their exit slips in pairs or small groups
*Allow students to verbally express the information

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Exit Slips | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Exit slips are written student responses to questions teachers pose at the end of a class or lesson. These quick, informal assessments enable teachers to quickly assess students’ understanding of the material.

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Description: A visual organizer that can enrich students' understanding of a new concept. The students use a graphic organizer to organize the ideas into categories.
Advantages:
~Helps organize new information
~Helps students make meaningful connections between the main idea and other information
~Quicker way to develop ideas
Disadvantages:
-May be difficult to read if too much information is included and creates cluster
-Could potentially discourage critical thinking
Adaptations for ELL:
*Can be used to teach vocabulary words explicitly and use simple words
*Students are able to draw pictures
*Provides a visual aid for building upon the students' prior knowledge with new information

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More comprehension strategies

Why use a concept map?

It helps children organize new information.

It helps students to make meaningful connections between the main idea and other information.

They're easy to construct and can be used within any content area.

How to use a concept map

Note: It is important that teachers spend time introducing younger students to charts and diagrams prior to using this strategy.

There are several ways to construct concept maps. Most include the following steps:

1. Model how to identify the major ideas or concepts presented in a selection of text as you read.

2. Organize the ideas into categories. Remind students that your organization may change as you continue to read and add more information.

3. Use lines or arrows on the map to represent how ideas are connected to one another, a particular category, and/or the main concept. Limit the amount of information on the map to avoid frustration.

4. After students have finished the map, encourage them to share and reflect on how they each made the connections between concepts.

5. Encourage students to use the concept map to summarize what was read.

Download blank templates

Lesson plan

Concept Muraling: Organizing Knowledge Visually to Improve Comprehension

Help students develop a framework for organizing their knowledge of a content area text by providing visuals and key vocabulary words. See the lesson plan from the Balanced Literacy Diet.

See many more related how-to videos with lesson plans in the Reading Comprehension Strategies section.

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Concept Maps | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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A concept map is a visual organizer that can enrich students' understanding of a new concept. Using a graphic organizer, students think about the concept in several ways. Most concept map organizers engage students in answering questions such as, "What is it? What is it like? What are some examples?"