Recognizing literary elements is identifying elements of the story such as plot, characters and setting, and themes, as described by Boshey and Moser, 2009 (p.167). Learning and identifying literary elements in fiction stories is a successful comprehension strategy because it helps student to make inferences about the story. It enhances the story, and helps students understand the various components, the problem and solution in the story. Knowing this information helps students to remember and understand the story. This strategy is beneficial for all students who read and write fiction stories. The depth of literary elements can vary based on ability. Lower level learners may be still working on basic character plot and setting, while more advances learners may be working to develop themes, and more advanced literary techniques, such as irony and figurative language. All which help students better comprehend the stories they are reading.  

The strategy of determining the main idea is, according to Gunning (2016), the strategy to gather the “gist of the paragraph or piece” (p.301). Along with finding the main idea, the reader identifies supporting details to support the main idea. This is a strategy often used when reading non-fiction text to help deepen understanding of the more complex text. The main idea may be explicitly stated, yet not always. This strategy is successful yet takes practice to move beyond just topic identification to construct a main idea. As students work through the steps to construct the main idea they most likely discuss important parts of the story, make and evaluate connections between parts of the story, all while gathering data to construct the main idea. During this process they are building comprehension about the text. Students can become overwhelmed with details when reading some non-fiction text. Once mastery of main idea identification has occurred, students can then determine what additional details are important, details that support the main idea, and those that do not. All students benefit from learning how to identify supporting and main ideas in text. Using tools such as graphic organizers, are beneficial to students who are developing their skills to identify the main idea, and should be used during practice to gain mastery. 

Summarizing as communicated by Boushey and Moser (2009), “is the strategy of taking selections of text and reducing them into their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, and the moan points that were worth noting and remembering” (p.164). The success of using this strategy is the skill can be taught using short simple text, and build up to more complex text. In addition, once the strategy is understood how to be used, it can be used to gauge student comprehension. At which point, adjustments or clarification can be provided for students who do not have understanding. Again summarizing is beneficial for all students, but might look different based on abilities. I begin with a five finger retell of a stories, in which students can tell five important events in a story. Finally move to students using sematic maps to organize details before composing written summaries, with many variations in between.  

QAR is the strategy in which students are involved in a question and answer relationship in which they must rely on background knowledge, and text content. Students who rely on background knowledge only to answer questions can benefit from this strategy based on the different levels of questions presented. The success of this strategy comes from oversimplified process laid out by Gunning (2016), and the four levels of questions. The right there questions, with answers found in a single sentence. The put together questions, with answers found in several sentences of the text. The on my own questions, in which students use background knowledge to determine the answers. Finally, the writer and me questions, in which the reader constructs answers from the information in the text and their own background. (Gunning, p.313) In conjunction with this strategy, students learn to develop better written responses.