Reading Difficulties: Remediation Strategies and Techniques
(Session 2)—Reading Comprehension
Faith Berens, HSLDA Special Needs Consultant/Reading Specialist
Possible Reasons for Comprehension Difficulties:
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Poor decoding
Slow reading
Working memory deficits
Poor language skills
Receptive language processing difficulties
Language barrier
Low or limited vocabulary
Not making a “gestalt” or picture (movie in the mind)
May be a student who is very literal/does not know how to inference and draw
conclusions; may not be able to pick out big ideas
Reading Comprehension Strategies:
The main comprehension strategies readers use are:
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Connecting
Picturing (using sensory images, making a movie in your mind)
Wondering/Questioning
Noticing the important parts
Synthesizing and Inferring (Figuring out)
Predicting and Guessing (part of inferring)
Monitoring (Noticing when you stop understanding)
Teach your child these strategies, explicitly and systematically.
Ways to Teach Comprehension:
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Model the reading strategies you, as an adult reader, use. Do this during your
family read aloud time.
Ex. Think Aloud technique: “I wonder what it going to happen next?” “I think
….is going to….” “This story reminds me of the time….” By doing this you are
modeling making connections and predictions.
**Choose texts/books carefully for modeling strategies. Use picture books!
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Use supervised “Internet Workshop” to provide your child with opportunities so
sharpen their critical thinking skills, motivate them, and give them an opportunity
to share their discoveries.
Steps to do Internet Workshop:
1. Locate a site(s) that are appropriate and connected to the content or unit of study,
set a bookmark for the location(s).
2. Develop an activity requiring your child to use the site(s), such as Find out 3
interesting facts about Greek civilization. (This is often called a
WebQuest…think of it as a Treasure Hunt on the websites.)
3. Assign this activity to be completed during the week.
4. Have your child share his/her work and discoveries, questions he/she still has, and
new insights at the end of the week or on the weekend (over pizza on Family
Night!)
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Steps:
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Reciprocal Questioning Strategy (ReQuest) developed by Manzo
Parent/teacher and child read.
Student/child questions teacher.
Parent/teacher questions students.
Student/child predicts the story’s outcome.
Parent/teacher and child finish reading to check predictions.
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Reciprocal Teaching—parent and child read a passage together. Parent
models and guides child in summarizing, discussing parts that were not
clear/not understood, tricky vocabulary, etc. Parent and child share
questions and predictions. The goal of this technique is to help readers
internalize these steps so that they can then apply them independently
during silent reading.
Summarize
Clarify
Question
Predict
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Teach sequence relationships and sequence signal words such as, before,
after, finally, first, initially, following, earlier, afterward, next, later
Teach Cause and Effect relationships and signal words and phrases such
as, because, so, therefore, hence, thus, since, as a result, consequently, on
account of, accordingly
 Directed-Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)
Steps:
1. Predicting—Tell me what you think the story/book will be about? Where might it
take place? Who do you think will be in the story?
2. Reading—Have child read silently to a predetermined point, at which time the
child’s earlier predictions should be checked.
3. Proving—Ask child to draw conclusion and explain his/her reasoning. Ask child
to evaluate the evidence in relation to their predictions. (Was your guess correct?
Why or why not? What do you think now? Why? Why do you think X
happened? What do you predict will happen next?
 Sketch-to-Stretch
Read aloud a passage, poem, part of a story. Then pause, and ask the child to sketch what
he/she is imagining in his/her head. Who is in the movie in his/her mind? Where does
the story happen? What is happening?
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Use Graphic Organizers, such as story maps, flow charts, webs, venn diagrams,
etc.
Books and Resources:
7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse
Hutchens
Constructing Meaning by Nancy Boyles **Comes with reproducibles on cd
Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content Area Reading by Harvey Daniels and Steven
Zemelman
Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabel L. Beck
Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis
Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies by Jeffrey Wilhelm, PH.D.
Make It Real by Linda Hoyt
When the comprehension problem is:
lack of background
knowledge, limited
vocabulary, or unfamiliar
genre, text features or
concepts of print
determining importance of
information, sequence,
details, elements of plot,
locating information
making connections,
comparison/contrast,
cause/effect, drawing
conclusions or summarizing
Strategies
Strategies
Strategies
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picture walk/preview
strategy
think-aloud
K-W-L
story mapping
shared reading to model
concepts of print
teach common text
features
exposure to variety of
genres
wide reading
Text Talk (Beck)
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think-aloud
graphic organizers
story mapping
story boards
Read, Cover,
Remember, Retell
two-column notes
cloze
Text Talk (Beck)
QAR
SW3R
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think-aloud
text connections
graphic organizers
Reciprocal Teaching
one sentence summary
Text Talk (Beck)
QAR
SQ3R
literature circles
coding
marginal notes
selective highlighting
Resources
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Mosaic of Thought
Strategies that Work
Questioning the Author
Guiding Readers and
Writers
Guided Reading
The Power of Retelling
Resources
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Mosaic of Thought
Strategies that Work
Questioning the Author
Guiding Readers and
Writers
Guided Reading
Improving
Comprehension with
Think-Aloud Strategies
The Power of Retelling
Resources
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

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Mosaic of Thought
Strategies that Work
Questioning the Author
Guiding Readers and
Writers
Guided Reading
I Read It, but I Don’t
Get It
Improving
Comprehension with
Think-Aloud Strategies
When Kids Can’t Read:
What Teachers Can Do,
6-12
Developed collaboratively by the Reading and Language Arts Department, Exceptional Student
Education, School Psychological Services, and the ESOL Department, Volusia County Schools,
Florida. January, 2005