The goal of comprehension strategy instruction is to turn responsibility for using strategies over to students as soon as possible. Expert readers use a variety of strategies to help them make sense of the text and to get the most out of what they read. Model strategy use, being sure to name the strategy being used, and gradually incorporate various kinds of prompts and possible student think-alouds as examples of the types of things students might do as they read to comprehend what they are reading.

• Have students stop periodically, and check whether the text makes sense. Use open-ended questions and students’ questions and comments to make the text and the strategic reading more meaningful to students. Some examples of open-ended questions are: What kinds of things did you wonder about? What kinds of things surprised you? What new information did you learn? What was confusing? Remind students to think aloud about text challenges. Have them help each other figure out the answers to their questions. Have students make as many connections as they can between what they are reading and what they already know. Remind students to visualize in order to clarify meanings.
• Use strategies like Asking Questions, Visualizing, Self-Monitoring, Clarifying and Predicting to support comprehension. Be sure to use your own thinking and experiences to the lesson and the think-alouds. Encourage students to stop and use the strategies as well to engage them in thinking about what they are reading.

Discussing the selection allows students to hear different points of view about a subject, to add to their own knowledge, and to learn to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

• Help students make connections to other selections in the unit and to the unit theme. If reading a fictional piece, helps students compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters across stories. Help them identify similarities and differences between two informational texts on the same topic, such as their illustrations, descriptions, or procedures.
• Discuss new information learned. Help students ask questions and answer questions that help them better understand what they have read and all that they are learning through their reading.