1. Comprehension Strategy Routine Cards
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

2. Setting Reading Goals: Activating Prior Knowledge
Display a KWL chart. (K = What We Know; W = What We Want to Know; L = What We Learned)
Show students the cover of the book. Read the title.
Have students look through any illustrations in the book.
Ask students to share what they already KNOW about the story and its theme/topic from the title and illustrations. List their responses under the “K” column.
With the students, brainstorm what they WANT to know about the story based on the title and illustrations. List their responses under the “W” column.
Read the story.
After reading the story, ask students to share what they LEARNED from the story. List their responses under the “L” column.
When reading a longer selection, or when reading one selection over several days, review the KWL chart at the beginning of each lesson. Additional responses may be added daily in the “What We Want to Know” column.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

3. Setting Reading Goals:
Browsing the Text
Display a Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart.
Explain to the students that every time we read something we use strategies that give us a sense of what we read and help us understand it better.
Have students browse a few pages of the story.
Ask volunteers to share some things they learned by browsing. Under the “Clues” heading, write what they discovered about the story’s genre, characters, setting, problem, and so forth.
Ask students if they found any words that were unfamiliar to them. List them under the “Vocabulary” heading. (As word meanings are determined during the reading of the book, write them beside the words.)
Encourage the students to ask questions about things they noticed during the browsing of the book. Write these under the “Wonderings” heading.
Model making observations and wonderings by using sentence stems such as:
“I noticed that ”
“I was surprised to see that ”
“I wonder why. . . ?”
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

4. Setting Reading Goals: Considering the Purpose
Display a Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart.
Explain to the students that good readers usually know what they want from a text. Generally, readers read either for pleasure and enjoyment, or to learn something specific.
After the students have browsed the story and listed some “wonderings” they have about the story, ask them whether they think they will be reading the story primarily for pleasure or in order to learn something specific.
Remind the students that, at any time during the reading of the story, they may add additional questions to the “Wonderings” column.
As answers to questions are discovered during the reading of the story, record them beside the questions in the “Wonderings” column.
At the conclusion of the story, go back and review each of the questions and answers. If questions are left unanswered, brainstorm with the students other ways the answers to the questions can be found.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

5. Setting Reading Goals:
Asking Questions
Display a Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart.
Read the title of the story.
Model asking an “I wonder. . .?” question about the title. For example, “I wonder what the story is about?” Record the question in the “Wonderings” column.
Read the first sentence/paragraph of the story.
Model asking an “I wonder. . . ?” question about the sentence/paragraph. For example, “I wonder who is telling the story?” “I wonder where the story takes place?” “I wonder what will happen next?” Record the question.
Read the next sentence/paragraph of the story.
Model another “I wonder. . . ?” question, writing it on the chart. In addition to asking detail questions about the passage (i.e., “I wonder who the main character is?”), ask questions that require students to relate personal experiences and prior knowledge to information in the passage (i.e., “I wonder if the main character is older or younger than I am?”). Be careful to ask questions that will deepen the students’ comprehension of the story.
Read the next sentence/paragraph of the story. Have a student ask an “I wonder. . . ?” question. Record the response.
Continue reading the selection a sentence/paragraph at a time until several students have had the opportunity to ask an “I wonder. . . ?” question and add it to the chart.
Have students finish reading the passage silently. Encourage them to ask themselves “I wonder. . .” questions as they read.
After students have completed the passage, read the “Wonderings” and discuss whether they discovered answers to their questions as they read.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

6. Comprehension Strategies:
Clarifying Words
Display a Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart.
Explain to the students that when good readers come to a confusing word, they will try to figure out what is confusing. Is it the meaning of a word that they do not understand? Good readers stop and attempt to clear up their confusion. This is called clarifying.
Read the first sentence/paragraph. Select a word from the passage that may be difficult for the students. Write it in the “Vocabulary” column.
Ask the students how to find the meaning of the word. (Possible answers include from context, from a resource like a dictionary or glossary, or from someone who knows.)
With the help of the students, determine the meaning of the word.
On the chart, write the meaning of the word. Use the students’ explanation rather than the dictionary definition.
Refer to the chart daily to review the new words and their meanings.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

7. Comprehension Strategies:
Clarifying Concepts
Display a Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart.
Explain to the students that when good readers come to a confusing passage, they will try to figure out what is confusing. Are they unsure about the meaning of a passage? Good readers stop and attempt to clear up their confusion. This is called clarifying.
Read the story. Stop at a point where there is a concept or illustration which the students may find confusing.
Say, “I’m confused about something in this story.” Explain what you find confusing, and why it is confusing, stating it as a question. Write the question in the “Wonderings” column of the chart.
Tell the students that you could reread the passage, think about the passage, or read on in the passage to find an answer for your question.
By thinking aloud, model for the students how to find an answer for the question.
As students find other confusing passages, have them write their questions in the “Wonderings” column and try to find answers.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

8. Setting Reading Goals: Making Connections to Self
Read aloud a passage in the story.
Explain to the students that good readers pay attention to things in the text that remind them of their own experiences. Making connections to their own lives help readers understand what they are reading.
Model making a connection to self using one of the following sentence stems:
“This passage reminds me of the time I ”
“I remember a time when I felt just like (a character in the story). What happened was ”
“I understand how (a character in the story) is feeling. I felt that way when ”
Read aloud some more of the passage, stopping to model making connections using the sentence stems provided.
Ask for a volunteer to try to make a connection to self from the text. Remind the students that they may use one of the sentence stems.
If the students need added support, write out the sentence stems and post them in the room, so they may refer to them for use during other stories.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

9. Setting Reading Goals: Making Connections to Text
Read aloud a passage in the story.
Explain to the students that good readers pay attention to elements in the text that remind them of other books they have read or something they have already learned. These connections help readers understand what they are reading.
Model making a connection to text using one of the following sentence stems:
“(Character’s name) reminds me of (character from another story). They are alike because ”
“This story reminds me of (title of another story)
because “
Read aloud some more of the passage, stopping to model making connections to text using the sentence stems provided.
Ask for a volunteer to try to make a connection to text from the story. Remind the students that they may use one of the sentence stems.
If the students need added support, write out the sentence stems and post them in the room, so they may refer to them for use during other stories.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

10. Setting Reading Goals: Summarizing Narrative Text
Before class, prepare a simple chart to use in summarizing narrative text. An example would be three rectangles, one labeled “characters,” one labeled “problem,” and one labeled “solution.”
After reading the story, review the findings on the Clues/Vocabulary/Wonderings chart. Remind the students to refer to the CVW chart as needed.
Ask the students, “Who was in the story?” Record their answers in the “characters” space on the chart .
Ask the students, “What was the problem in the story?” Record their answers under “problem.”
Ask the students, “How was the problem in the story solved?” Record their answers under “solution.”
Explain to the students that by using the names of the characters, the problem in the story, and its solution, they can create a summary of the story.
Model writing a brief summary statement using the information provided by the students on the chart.
After modeling the use of the chart several times with subsequent stories, have the students create their own summary statements using the information from the chart.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

11. Setting Reading Goals: Summarizing Expository Text
While planning for the lesson, review the story and mark three natural or logical “stopping points.”
Before class, prepare a simple chart to use in summarizing expository text. An example would be three circles, each labeled “main idea.”
Read aloud to a stopping point and ask the students, “What is the main idea in this passage?”
Record the students’ answer in the first circle on the expository text summary chart.
Read to the next stopping point. Again, ask the students to identify the main idea and record it.
Continue reading to the end of the story. Ask the students to identify the main idea of the final passage.
Record the students’ answer in the last circle.
Explain to the students that, by combining the main idea statements from each passage, a summary of the story can be written.
Model writing a summary statement of the story using the main idea statements recorded on the chart.
During subsequent stories, as the students become familiar with the process, have them write the main idea statements on the chart, and then generate a summary statement from them.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency

12. Setting Reading Goals:
Visualizing
Prior to this activity, assign each student a partner.
Read aloud a passage from the story.
Think aloud with the students, sharing with them details about the picture you can visualize from what you read in the story. Include descriptions of not only what you “see,” but also the sounds and even smells or tastes you can imagine from what you read in the text.
Ask the students to close their eyes and try to see a picture in their mind of what was read in the passage.
Have the students talk to their partners about what they saw in their mind picture. Remind them to also describe sounds or smells or any other sensory perceptions they had. Ask them to compare the picture their partner saw with the one they saw. How were the pictures alike? How were they different?
Continue to read the story, occasionally stopping to ask the students to close their eyes, see the picture in their mind, and compare it with their partner’s.
If students are having trouble seeing the picture in their mind, allow them to use pencil and paper to draw a picture of what they see. Give them a short (2-minute) time limit, since the focus of the lesson should be on story comprehension rather than artistic expression. Partners may then share their pictures with each other and discuss similarities and differences.
As soon as possible, move students away from the use of paper, encouraging them to “draw” the pictures in their minds.
The Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas at Houston © 2007 University of Texas System and Texas Education Agency