Yesterday, we published an article entitled 24 reading comprehension concepts and strategies that you can use in your classroom today. After reflecting on this article, I decided that it didn’t quite go far enough, so I decided to pen another one, discussing 14 more. Enjoy!

1. GRASP (Guided Reading and Summarizing Procedure)- A reading strategy under teacher guidance in which students read to collect information and try to remember as much as possible, list what they remember after the reading, reread the material to add to, delete, and correct information, and then organize information according to their details.

2. GRS (Guided Reading Strategy)- A version of the GRASP strategy, which includes the following steps: surveying the chapter or section, talking about what the student remembered from the survey, scanning the chapter for missing information, discussing with the teacher about the survey results and organizing information into an outline by topic, careful independent reading of the chapter or selection, a true or false quiz of 10 questions and, after a week, a 10-question pop quiz on the material.

3. Anticipation/Reaction Guide- A teaching idea that helps the student to utilize their prior knowledge to make connects to the text, set purposes for reading, and develop a more accurate understanding of the new informational text. An anticipation/reaction guide consists of several true or false statements related to the text.

4. Bio-Impressions- A teaching idea used prior to a reading assignment to predict what information the upcoming text will contain. To create a bio-impression, students will choose a person and receive a list of clues about their life connected by downward arrows. A pair of students will try to use the clues in sequential order to write their prediction of what information the biography will contain. This learning tool helps students to make predictions about the text and encourages them to make connections between the vocabulary and the biography.

5. Prereading Plan (PreP)- A teaching idea used to engage prior knowledge about a topic, provide new vocabulary, and make connections. While students are getting used to the idea of creating a PreP, the teacher will provide an idea and students must brainstorm related words or concepts.

6. Previewing- A reading comprehension strategy where students engage their prior knowledge, establish a purpose for their reading and making predictions or inferences about the text.

7. Say Something- A teaching idea where students will work in pairs to read a text and share their thoughts with peers. At designated points throughout the text, students will be instructed to stop reading, turn to their partners, and Say Something. They are often prompted by statements like “I did not know that…” or “I was surprised by…” This can be used with narrative and informational texts, both during and after reading.

8. Self-Questioning- A reading comprehension strategy where readers will generate a series of questions to guide their thinking while reading.

9. Visualizing- A reading comprehension strategy where readers will create mental images of the text as they read.

10. Bio-Pyramid- A reading comprehension strategy designed by Macon (1991) that is a summary of a person’s life. It forms a pyramid shape that creates a graphic organizer of information with a specific number of words and particular information on each line.

11. Discussion Web- A reading comprehension strategy that provides students with a specific format and structure to discuss an expository text. To make a discussion web, students must think critically about both sides of a topic from multiple points of view.

12. Evaluating- A reading comprehension strategy that involves making judgments both during and after reading an expository or narrative text. The issues mostly focus on whether the author’s message is consistent and whose perspective is presented in the text.

13. Mind and Alternative-Mind Portraits- A reading comprehension strategy used after reading an informational text that is designed to help readers explore two separate viewpoints. These can include Narrative and Alternative Narratives, Photographs and Alternative Photographs, and Videos and Alternative Videos.

14. Venn Diagram- A reading comprehension strategy used to note similarities and differences on a given topic. It is viewed as two interlocking circles where the differences appear in the outer portions of the circles and similarities are noted in the shared space between them. It is named for its creator, John Venn.

Do you have any concepts or strategies that you would like to share with our readers?