Reading Your Science Textbook Strategies for comprehension

Purpose Always read the objectives for the Chapter and for the section that you are currently reading. You must have a “Purpose” for reading the material.

Headings/Subheadings Read through the headings followed by the subheadings Start thinking about how the chapter is organized by looking at headings. Keep in mind that some headings are different colors.

Vocabulary Look at the bold print words and try to pronounce them before you start reading. You will have better fluency and therefore better understanding if you struggle through the difficult words before you start reading.

Pictures/Charts/Graphs Read the descriptions of pictures, charts and graphs before reading. This will give you a visual representation of what you will be reading about.

Super Six Bookmark We will be using this bookmark to remind us of the Super Six Comprehension Strategies –Make Connections –Predict/Infer –Ask Questions –Monitor –Summarize –Evaluate

Make Connections I know …. about this topic –Prior knowledge This reminds me of –Something in my life –Something I read previously –Some knowledge about the world

Predict/Infer I think this is about….. I know this because the clues I see are….. I inferred ….. by using the clues….. and what I already knew about……

Ask Questions I am wondering ….. What could a teacher ask me? –Who, what, where, when, why I would like to ask the author about….

Monitor Does the reading make sense? What are the difficult words and ideas? How can you fix up the problem? –Reread, read on, look for parts you know)

Summarize I can summarize the main ideas and events in a few sentences. The principle or law is …… Now I think …..

Evaluate How do I rate the reading material, author’s style, ideas, and my reading?

Other Strategies (using as a class) Anticipation Guide Graphic Organizers Advance Organizers KWL Charts Class Discussion Mnemonics Directed Reading Pairs Read Structured Note-taking “Think-alouds”