How to Choose Comprehension Strategies Using our Flow Chart

Today is all about CHOOSING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES made simple!  We have done the hard thinking for you and made a simple flow chart for your use for free.  Watch our video and use these easy steps in the flowchart to determine your reading strategies. Then, follow the tips and reminders for lesson plans that will help your students deeply comprehend their text. We even give you explicit language for each strategy!

Here is our “Choosing Comprehension Strategies” flow chart to use as a way to quickly choose your strategy(ies) for instruction.  This is something we both use as we plan our own comprehension strategy instruction.  I, Angie, use it to plan lessons for my pre-service students when I model comprehension lessons and Whitney uses it for her daily comprehension instruction as a classroom teacher.  We have found it to be a valuable tool for our planning. 

We have also provided some teacher language for the strategies.  The teacher language will help you introduce the strategies and give you a starting point for your modeling.  Don’t forget that you have to include a think-aloud of how you used the strategy! The teacher language will guide you but is not a think-aloud during your modeling of strategy use. If you still need more help on what to do next, see one of our comprehension lessons with the teacher talk already filled in. We also have posters of the strategies and graphic organizers ready for your use in your classroom.  These can help keep you on track with your strategy instruction and use.

Most importantly, don’t give up!  Keep trying to use comprehension strategies in your instruction.  Students need these strategies so when they read on their own they have the thinking to be able to comprehend difficult and complex text without the support of a teacher to guide them. 

Good luck in your future comprehension planning!

FREE Comprehension Resources Handout (Flow Chart, Teacher Language, and More!)
Comprehension Graphic Organizers and Posters
Comprehension Lessons