Reading Strategies
Strategy
Explanation
Example
Look at the The reader looks through the book from As the student is looking through
Book
cover to cover. They guess what is going the book ask:
to happen in the book by looking at the o What do you see in the
pictures or chapter titles.
pictures?
o What words will you see?
o What will happen in the book?
Shadow Me The buddy points to the words and whisper The buddy whispers the words
reads. The reader follows their finger and while pointing to them.
If the
reads aloud. When the reader gets stuck reader gets stuck on a word in the
on the word then the buddy reads it aloud. sentence:
This gives the reader confidence that they The girl screamed when her friend
can read the book with out stopping.
scared her.
The buddy will help the reader by
reading the word screamed aloud.
Look at the The reader is encouraged to look at the When the reader gets stuck on a
pictures
pictures to help them figure out what the word:
word says.
The octopus has eight legs.
The buddy tells them to look at the
picture and ask:
o What do you see in the picture?
o Does that word match what you
see in the picture?
Sound it
The reader is encouraged to use the letter The buddy asks:
Out
sounds and letter chunks that they know o What sounds does th make?
to help them figure out the word.
o What sound does the letter d
make?
Move On
The reader is encouraged to use the If the reader gets stuck the buddy
meaning in the sentence to figure out a tells them to move on and then
word. When the student gets stuck on a come back to it.
word in the sentence, the buddy tells them After the reader has read the rest
to move on and come back to it later. The of the sentence, the buddy asks:
reader then continues reading the rest of o Do you know what the word is
the sentence to help them figure out the
now?
word. Then they reread the sentence.
o Does that word make sense in
the sentence?
Then the reader rereads the
sentence.
Give me a The reader asks Give me a clue when they The buddy could:
Clue
are stuck on a word. The buddy then gives o Point to something
them a clue to help them figure out the o Say what it rhymes with
word. Once the reader figures out the o Say it means the same as…
word, the buddy tells them to reread the o Say what it sounds like
sentence.
Give it a
Go! Make a
good
Guess!
The buddy encourages the reader to make
a good guess to figure out what word would
make sense in the sentence.
Look at the The buddy encourages the reader to look
Marks
at the punctuation marks to help them in
their reading.
Word
Power with
Rhyming
parts
The buddy finds words in the story for the
reader to find rhyming words for. The
reader can find words that look the same.
The reader can find rhyming words.
Word Play
with
Beginning
and Ending
sounds
What’s the
sound?
What’s the
letter?
Read and
Think
The buddy encourages the reader to find
words in the story that begin or end with
the same sound.
Tell a
Story
The reader is encouraged to retell what
they read in a proper order. The buddy
will encourage them to tell about what
happened in the beginning, middle and end.
The reader is encouraged to look at the
letter at the beginning or end of the word
and remember the sound that the letter
(or chunk of letters) make.
The reader is encouraged to think about
the story and the words as they are
reading. The buddy can ask them what
they are thinking about as they read
through the story.
o Look for a smaller word inside
the big word
The buddy asks:
o What do you think would fit
there?
o Does that word make sense?
o Does that word match the
letters? Picture?
The buddy reminds them what the
marks mean. They ask:
o What do you do at a period?
Comma?
o What does that mark mean?
The buddy can find a word in the
text (glad) and ask the reader:
What word in the story rhymed
with bad?
The buddy can ask the reader what
does man, ran and fan have the
same?
The buddy can ask the reader which
word does not belong in cat, cap and
mat?
The buddy and the reader can make
a list of the words which start with
the same letter and sound. They
can figure out what word does not
belong in cat, cap and mat.
The buddy asks:
o What is this letter?
o What sound does this letter
make?
The buddy asks:
o What does this sentence make
you think of?
o How did you feel after reading
this book?
o What strategies did you use to
figure out the word?
The buddy asks at the end of the
chapter or story:
o What happened in the story?
o Did you like the book?
o What was your favourite part?