Review the basic sentence types (simple, complex, compound and compound-complex) and purposes (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative). When reading, it is important to know what to expect. If you read one basic statement, assume that another similar statement will likely follow. If you read a question, you can expect to get the answer. These skills help struggling readers find patterns in text.
Preview or survey nonfiction material, looking at titles and subtitles, pictures and their captions, terms in bold and charts or graphs. These items give a sense of what the text will be about. When reading fiction, preview the text by reading the book summary, examining the cover illustration, looking at section breaks and chapter titles and learning about the author.
Question the information. What do you already know about the topic, author, or setting? What would you like to know? List prior knowledge and desired knowledge in a KWL chart and set a purpose for reading.
Highlight important text. Facts or events that are significant to the story should be marked so they can easily be found again. This will assist the reader in remembering information.
Write comments, predictions and questions in the margins or on sticky notes. It is important to think about what is being read and question things that happen. Questioning while reading means that the reader is more engaged in the text and will lead to better overall comprehension.
Stop after every couple pages to write a brief summary of the information. This reading intervention breaks the text into smaller, easier-to-digest sections just right for struggling readers, as they can understand more information when there is less to read. The summaries can then be combined and reviewed together as one passage.
Review notes and try to answer any questions that may have come up during reading. By answering questions that developed while reading, students make more sense of the text as a whole. They can find connections and see the cause and effect relationships.
Respond to the text by evaluating the information and giving personal opinions. Look at how effective the text was at meeting the purpose its author devised. Evaluating is a higher-order thinking skill that, when done well, demonstrates a thorough understanding of the material.
Make a vocabulary notebook. List unfamiliar words and their definitions in a notebook to keep and refer to at any time. This will, in essence, become the student's personal dictionary. Improving vocabulary is another important step in reading comprehension.