Going to the Races
The first comprehension strategy involves using your “go tos” - basic reading skills needed for the effective use of all the other comprehension strategies. There are six commonly used “go tos,” the first letters of which spell the word races. You may not have heard of the expression going to the races, which is an idiom meaning on the go, off somewhere … like the races (popular in times past). In our case we’re off and running with our reading.
· Read and recall - read the text and questions carefully; be sure you know what you are being asked. See the Be Aware of the "Ws" for an explanation of the question words that are commonly misread. The second part of this strategy is recalling prior knowledge, as you often need to use what you already know to make sense of what you are reading.
· Analyse - study and interpret the details to make sense of what you are reading.
· Connect - make links between information and ideas in the text and to your existing knowledge and experience.
· Enquire - look into your own understanding to monitor what is making sense for you, what is confusing for you and what you could do to better understand, such as re-reading, visualising or using a different comprehension strategy eg. working out word meanings, making out the main idea, producing predictions, finalising the figurative, casting a critical eye or acknowledging author’s purpose.
· Synthesise - merge new ideas and information with your existing knowledge to create new thoughts and ideas or to change old ones, as appropriate.
· Read and recall - read the text and questions carefully; be sure you know what you are being asked. See the Be Aware of the "Ws" for an explanation of the question words that are commonly misread. The second part of this strategy is recalling prior knowledge, as you often need to use what you already know to make sense of what you are reading.
· Analyse - study and interpret the details to make sense of what you are reading.
· Connect - make links between information and ideas in the text and to your existing knowledge and experience.
· Enquire - look into your own understanding to monitor what is making sense for you, what is confusing for you and what you could do to better understand, such as re-reading, visualising or using a different comprehension strategy eg. working out word meanings, making out the main idea, producing predictions, finalising the figurative, casting a critical eye or acknowledging author’s purpose.
· Synthesise - merge new ideas and information with your existing knowledge to create new thoughts and ideas or to change old ones, as appropriate.