The integrated reading comprehension strategies are predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. These strategies are often used in reciprocal teaching, where students take turns leading small group discussions about a text.
These strategies are designed to help readers actively engage with the text, improve their understanding, and monitor their comprehension. Let's explore each strategy in more detail:
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Predicting: Before reading, students make educated guesses about what the text will be about based on the title, headings, or any accompanying visuals. During reading, students can pause and predict what might happen next. This activates prior knowledge and sets a purpose for reading.
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Clarifying: While reading, students identify any confusing words, phrases, or concepts. They then use context clues, dictionaries, or other resources to clarify their understanding. Clarifying ensures that students don't gloss over important information.
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Questioning: Students generate questions about the text to deepen their understanding. Questions can focus on main ideas, supporting details, author's purpose, or connections to personal experiences. Questioning encourages critical thinking and active engagement.
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Summarizing: After reading a section of text, students concisely restate the main ideas in their own words. Summarizing helps students to identify the most important information and to monitor their comprehension.
In reciprocal teaching, the teacher initially models these strategies before gradually transferring responsibility to the students. The students then take turns leading the group discussion, guiding their peers through the four strategies. This promotes active learning, collaboration, and improved reading comprehension.
