UPDATE 1/8/2019: Here is our newly updated reading comprehension strategy pack for 2019.

This reading comprehension strategy pack is our short set of instructional strategies that build reading comprehension strategies. It’s recently updated from the comprehension strategies that we sent in January 2018. This pack (downloadable PDF is at the end of this post) includes the following strategies:

• 5-2 Infer
• Sticky Note Support
• Thought Galleries
• What? This. Why?
• Thought Talks

I hope you give each of these strategies a try in your class with your students and discover one or two that really work well to help build stronger readers and writers!

This post will give an overview of each of the reading strategies, and the downloadable PDF will walk you through how to use each one. (My favorite is the Thought Talks.)

[thrive_link color=’blue’ link=’https://spiralwarmups.com/comprehension-instructional-strategy-pack-2019/’ target=’_self’ size=’medium’ align=’aligncenter’]Get the 2019 Version![/thrive_link]

5-2 Infer

This instructional strategy helps students practice using text details to make inferences. You can use anytime after you’ve delivered a mini-lesson on making inferences. The strategy will require modeling prior to the first use.

Sticky Note Support

This instructional strategy helps students cite text evidence to support an idea or inference. It’s perfect for students reading at DRA 20+ or for students in Guided Reading Levels F-Z+ (Here’s a free reading level correlation chart). This strategy can be used after teaching how to identify details in a text.

Thoughts Galleries

This strategy involves movement and collaboration. Students will spend 60-90 seconds in rotations around the room. Each rotation has a large chart paper hanging on the wall with a central idea, question, section of text, or concept. Their job is to add a thought to the page and have reasons to explain what they added.

What? This. Why?

In this strategy, students practice analyzing character motivations. They ask, “What happened?” Cite text evidence, “This also happened.” And they infer, “Why did this happen.” Readers need to understand that motivations can be revealed in evidence before and after an event occurs.

Thought Talks

In this strategy, students make their thinking visible as they read and then talk about their thoughts after reading. Each student uses four sticky notes to scaffold the thought talks around four words: wonder, confuse, feel, and predict.

[thrive_custom_box title=”Download the Comprehension Strategies” style=”light” type=”color” color=”#00b0f0″ border=”#002060″]This PDF walks through how to use each of the strategies.

[thrive_link color=’blue’ link=’https://spiralwarmups.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Reading-Comprehension-Strategy-Pack-Aug2018-Update.pdf’ target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ align=’aligncenter’]Click to Download[/thrive_link][/thrive_custom_box]

So what do you think of the strategies? Comment below with your thoughts and questions.