Strategies to Help your Child Achieve Excellence

Virtually all of the experts in educational research emphasize the importance of reading in the achievement equation.  In elementary school students are well grounded in “Reading for Literary Experience,” or reading a story.  They know that elements of a story well by middle school.  In middle school, however, students encounter a lot of informational reading, and “Reading to Be Informed” will dominate the rest of their education. 

Here are some strategies that you can help your child learn to help in comprehension while reading to be informed.  They are broken into three stages of reading: before, during, and after.

Before Reading:

• What do you know about the topic?

• Determine your purpose for reading the chapter or section

• Preview the selection.

• Look at any graphics and captions.

• Turn titles and subtitles into questions.

• Skim for new words.

• Use an organizer to frame what you know and your questions (KWL, sequence chart, cause and effect matrix, or other appropriate charts) according to what best fits the text structure.

While Reading:

• Use glossaries and dictionaries to help you understand new terms.

• Answer your preview questions.

• Reread hard to understand sections.

• Take notes to help you remember the information.

• Link new information to what you already know.

• Create mental pictures.

After Reading:

• Think about what you have learned.

• Look over what you have read.

• Write notes or ideas.

• How is this information helpful to you?

• How does this information compare to what you knew before you read the selection?  Do you need to revise your prior knowledge?

• What would you still like to learn about the topic?

• Talk to someone about the topic.