1. Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins
7 Keys to Comprehension
Susan Zimmerman and
Chryse Hutchins

2. Motion picture of the mind: sensory image
7 Keys to Comprehension
Motion picture of the mind: sensory image
Good readers create a wide range of visual, auditory, and other sensory images as they read, and they become emotionally involved with what they read.

3. Visualize What is this strategy?
Sensory images are pictures that run in your mind. Certain smells, tastes, sights, and feelings emerge depending on what you are reading.
How it helps you become a better reader:
Sensory images are a vital part of monitoring when reading. When a child realizes that there should be a movie running in his/her mind, he realizes when something “gets fuzzy”. This allows him to stop, get help then get back on the comprehension track.
What does it look like if a child is creating sensory images?
Your child will beg to be read to and will be disappointed when you stop! 
Your child can give you specific details of the story and a solid grasp of the plot.
Your child can make predictions about what will happen next, using evidence form the text.
Your child can read aloud with expression.
Your child can describe characters with great detail.

4. Tips to try at home:
Share the sensory images you have as you read.
Use picture books to show your sensory connections.
You read or listen to your child read.
Ask them what they see.
Ask them how they feel.
Ask your child what he/she sees and what part of the book helped him/her to “see” that.
Remind your child before reading to “turn on that movie camera” in his/her brain.
Keep talking with your child. You’ll both get better at this strategy the more you do it!

5. Making connections: background knowledge
Good readers use their relevant prior knowledge before, during and after reading to enhance their understanding of what they’re reading

6. Connect What is this strategy?
Background knowledge is all that you as a reader bring to a book: your personal history, things you’ve read or seen, your adventures, the experiences of your day-to-day life, your relationships, etc.
How it helps you become a better reader:
Background knowledge helps you interact with the text and make meaning. The meaning you figure out from a book is intertwined with the meaning you bring to it. As you read you awaken your background knowledge and you build on it. It is making connections to yourself, with another book, and with the world.
What does it look like if a child is using their background knowledge?
Your child will say, “That makes me think of…” AND “That reminds me of when…” AND “I have a connection…”

7. Tips to try at home:
Talk about your own background knowledge. Tell stories, read a page and say, “That reminds me of this book I read…” OR “That reminds me of a time when I …”
Before reading, discuss the cover and title of the book. Talk about what you think this book will be about. You are activating your child’s background knowledge. Share your ideas with him/her and you are building on his background knowledge!
As you read, share your memories (connections) with your child.

8. 7 Keys to Comprehension 3. Why, what, where, who and how: questioning
Questions indicate engagement
Questions are fundamental to being a human being
Questions are a key ingredient in building superb readers

9. Question What is this strategy?
Children are natural questioners. They question to learn and understand the world around them.
Readers ask themselves questions before they read, while they are reading, and after they finish a book.
How it helps you become a better reader:
Questioning helps a reader clarify ideas and deepen understanding.
If the reader asks questions while they are reading, they are engaging at a deeper level with the text and comprehending more!
What does it look like if a child is questioning?
Your child might stop you while you are reading to ask you questions about the book, what a word means, or about a character or event.
Watch for language like, “I wonder…” AND “Why…” AND “What does _____ mean?”

10. Tips to try at home:
Let your child know that asking questions gets him/her ready to read and understand more even before you open the book!
Before you begin to read a book together, ask your child to look at the cover and think about what the book will be about. Brainstorm a list of questions before reading.
Read the back cover before beginning to read the book. Ask questions. Encourage your child to ask questions.
Remind your child that not all questions will be answered as you read and that’s ok.
Tell your child to pretend that he/she is having a conversation with the author of the book. Encourage your child to ask questions he/she wishes the author would answer for him/her.

11. 4. Weaving sense into words: drawing
7 Keys to Comprehension
4. Weaving sense into words: drawing
inferences
Inferring involves forming a best guess about what the ‘evidence’ (words, sentences, and paragraphs) means; speculating about what’s to come; and then drawing conclusions about what was read to deepen the meaning of the literal words on the page.

12. By using inference you:
Elaborate upon what you read
Draw conclusions
Make predictions
Find connecting points
Ask questions
Personalize what you read to build a deeper meaning

13. Infer What is this strategy?
When you infer, you use your background knowledge along with the clues in the text to figure out things the author did not explictly state.
How it helps you become a better reader:
Inferring helps you draw conclusions about the book, find meaning of unknown words, understand characters feelings and figure out the problem and solution of the book.
What does it look like if a child is inferring?
Your child will make connections to the characters in a book and want to predict what will happen next.
Your child might say, “I know that ____ because ____.” AND “I infer…” AND “I know ______ will happen because _____.”
Infer

14. Tips to try at home:
Cartoons and comics are great ways to practice inferring. Share some this weekend!
Ask your child: “What do you think?” Honor his/her thinking – no matter what it is! 
Play “20 Questions”, “Guess My Animal” and “I Spy” with your child.

15. 7 Keys to Comprehension 5&6. What’s important and why: determining
importance and synthesizing
An important aspect of comprehension is being able to distinguish between the nonessential information and the essential information.
Determining importance has to do with knowing why you’re reading and then making decisions about which information or ideas are most critical to understanding the overall meaning of the piece

16. Importance What is this strategy?
Determining importance is deciding what are the most important things from the story to remember. It begins with: 1.) Knowing why you’re reading the book and 2.) Making decisions about which information is most critical to remember in order to understand the meaning of the book.
How it helps you become a better reader:
There is so much to remember in just one book! By determining what is most important, a reader can learn from the book, make connections, infer, and later synthesize. A critical part of comprehension is the ability to separate the nonessential from the essential.
What does it look like if a child knows how to determine importance?
Your child will be able to read and remember key points from books (or books that you read to him/her).
Your child will easily be able to tell you his/her purpose for reading a particular book.

17. Tips to try at home:
Ask your child what his/her purpose is for reading a specific book. Some examples are: to escape, to laugh, to learn, to answer a question, for a homework assignment, to inform, to follow a character in a series book, or to research.
Use the bold headings, captions, graphs, and bold words in a non-fiction book to help with determining what is most important.
Think of this strategy as a brain “strainer”. The strainer acts as your brain would – only holding the big ideas (most important information) while the other less important information falls out of the bottom of the strainer.

18. Synthesizing What is this strategy?
Synthesizing is closely linked to determining importance. It is taking the most important parts of a story and then putting it into a simple summary. In fiction, synthesis occurs as you summarize what happens in the story. In non-fiction, synthesis occurs when you identify the main idea and supporting details.
How it helps you become a better reader:
When readers synthesize they identify the essential story line and ask what it means to them. Through this process of synthesizing a reader’s thinking deepens and their understanding grows.
What does it look like if a child knows how to synthesize?
Your child will be able to tell you a summary of a story after reading. He/she will be able to tell the main ideas (not all the little details) and add in some thinking of his/her own.

19. Tips to try at home:
Ask your child to summarize at the end of a chapter or book.
Use a Flow Map to record the major events in a story. Then use this Flow Map to help your child synthesize the story.
Make a Tree Map as you read. Make one branch titled “summary” and add most important details as you read. Then complete the second branch titled “my response”. Match a response to each key detail. This will help your child synthesize both what was most important with what it means to them.

20. 7. Cultivating Awareness: Fix-up strategies
Go back and reread. Sometimes that is enough
Read ahead to clarify meaning
Identify what it is you don’t understand: word sentence or concept
If it is a word, read beyond and use context clues to help you understand.
If it is a sentence in a picture book, look at the pictures.

21. Fix-up What is this strategy?
“Fixing it up” strategies are what readers use when they realize that they are not getting anything out of their reading. Examples: knowing when you need to slow down to understand, reread, refocus, back up to get that mental mind movie started again, and knowing when you can’t remember what you just read.
How it helps you become a better reader:
“Fixing it up” as you are reading helps you get back on track with your understanding.
What does it look like if a child is using Fix-Up strategies?
Your child can do any of the six things listed on page 152.
You child has some strategies to monitor himself as a reader. He/she might reread on his/her own, ask for clarification of a word, check the pictures for understanding, or stop to summarize.
Fix-up

22. Tips to try at home:
Listen to your child read. Check to see if it sounds like he/she are understanding what he/she is reading. Be careful… some kids sound like they understand as they are reading. Ask questions to check.
Model fixing it up as you read. Stress the importance of understanding what you read.
Let your child know it is his/her job to know when the text makes sense and when it doesn’t. Actively read with your child and help him/her practice this level of engagement.