The Power of Effective Reading Strategies

Six Foundational Reading Strategies:

1. Eagle Eye: This strategy encourages readers to use pictures as clues to understand the text. If a reader encounters a word they don't recognize, they can look at the accompanying illustrations to gain context. This is particularly useful for young readers who are just starting to develop their reading skills.

2. Stretchy Snake: This strategy is about phonics, encouraging readers to sound out each letter or phoneme in the word. It's a useful strategy for understanding and pronouncing new words. It involves stretching the word out slowly and blending the sounds together to recognize the word.

3. Chunky Monkey: This strategy involves breaking down complex words into smaller, recognizable chunks. These chunks can be smaller words, prefixes, suffixes, or root words. This strategy helps readers tackle difficult words and enhances their understanding of word formation.

4. Skippy Frog: When a reader encounters a difficult word, this strategy suggests they skip it initially and continue reading. Often, the context from the surrounding sentences can provide clues about the word's meaning. After gaining that context, the reader can return to the skipped word and try to read it again.

5. Try a different sound: English language has many words that are pronounced differently than they are spelled, or have different pronunciations based on context (like read/read, lead/lead). If a reader pronounces a word and it doesn't make sense in the context, they can try pronouncing it differently.

6. Use your background knowledge: This strategy encourages readers to draw on their existing knowledge and experiences to make sense of what they're reading. If they come across a situation or word they don't understand, they can relate it to something they already know. This can enhance comprehension and make the reading more meaningful.

Ten Additional Strategies to Enhance Reading Skills

7. Flippy Dolphin: If a vowel sound doesn't make sense, try flipping it. For instance, if the short vowel sound doesn't work, try the long vowel sound, or vice versa.

8. Lips the Fish: Get your lips ready to say the first few sounds of the word. This is helpful for beginning readers to get started with a word.

9. Tryin' Lion: Encourage readers to try to re-read the sentence or to keep going when they encounter a difficult word or passage.

10. Dot the Giraffe: Look for and understand punctuation. This strategy encourages readers to pay attention to punctuation marks to improve their understanding and fluency.

11. Questioning Kangaroo: Develop the habit of asking questions before, during, and after reading. This enhances engagement and understanding.

12. Predicting Penguin: Make predictions about what might happen next in the story. This keeps the reader engaged and thinking actively about the text.

13. Summarizing Starfish: After reading a passage, chapter, or book, summarize what happened. This helps to ensure comprehension and recall of the main points.

14. Inferencing Iguana: Make inferences about the text based on the given information and your own knowledge and experiences. This deepens comprehension and engagement.

15. Visualizing Vulture: Create mental images of the scenes or concepts described in the text. This can enhance understanding, particularly for descriptive texts.

16. Connecting Chameleon: Make connections between the text and your own life, other texts, or the world around you. This helps to make the text more meaningful and relevant.

How These Strategies Align with the Science of Reading

These reading strategies align with the principles of the "Science of Reading," a body of research that emphasizes the importance of phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing in teaching reading. Let's look at how these strategies align with these principles:

1. Phonics: The "Stretchy Snake," "Chunky Monkey," "Flippy Dolphin," and "Lips the Fish" strategies all involve some aspect of phonics, or understanding the relationship between letters and sounds in a language. This is a key part of early reading instruction according to the Science of Reading.

2. Vocabulary: The "Chunky Monkey" strategy also involves understanding smaller parts of words, which can be an effective way to learn new vocabulary and understand how words are formed.

3. Fluency: The "Tryin' Lion" and "Dot the Giraffe" strategies can support reading fluency, or the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. The "Tryin' Lion" strategy encourages re-reading, which can help improve fluency over time, while the "Dot the Giraffe" strategy emphasizes understanding punctuation, which is key to reading with proper expression.

4. Comprehension: Most of these strategies involve comprehension in some way, whether it's using context clues ("Skippy Frog"), drawing on background knowledge, making inferences ("Inferencing Iguana"), visualizing ("Visualizing Vulture"), or summarizing ("Summarizing Starfish"). These are all strategies that can help students understand and remember what they read, which is the ultimate goal of reading according to the Science of Reading.

5. Writing: While not explicitly mentioned in these strategies, writing about what one reads is another important aspect of the Science of Reading, and many of these strategies could be extended to include a writing component. For example, students could write about their predictions ("Predicting Penguin"), their inferences ("Inferencing Iguana"), or their summaries ("Summarizing Starfish").

6. Metacognition: The "Questioning Kangaroo" strategy and the strategy of using background knowledge also involve metacognition, or thinking about one's own thinking. This is an important part of reading comprehension and is supported by the Science of Reading.

One strategy that doesn't align as well with the Science of Reading is "Eagle Eye," which encourages using pictures as clues. While pictures can provide support for beginning readers, the Science of Reading emphasizes the importance of decoding words using phonics skills. Depending on the age and reading level of the student, relying too heavily on pictures might not support the development of these crucial decoding skills.

Overall, though, these strategies are well-aligned with the Science of Reading and incorporate many of its key principles.

Embrace the Science of Reading for Effective Learning

In the journey of learning to read, every child has their unique pace, interests, and challenges. But no matter where they start, the ultimate goal is the same: to become proficient, confident readers who can decode words, comprehend text, and engage meaningfully with the written world around them. That's where the Science of Reading comes in. This body of research offers a roadmap to effective reading instruction, emphasizing the importance of phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.

The reading strategies we've outlined in this blog post—ranging from the foundational 'Eagle Eye' to the more complex 'Inferencing Iguana'—are tools to help navigate that roadmap. They aren't just cute names or fun activities; they're evidence-based practices designed to support the development of critical reading skills.

When a child uses the 'Stretchy Snake' strategy, they're strengthening their phonics skills. When they become a 'Predicting Penguin,' they're engaging with the text, fostering their comprehension skills. As they transform into a 'Visualizing Vulture,' they're bringing the text to life in their minds, enhancing their understanding and engagement. Each strategy aligns with one or more principles of the Science of Reading, providing a practical, engaging way to implement this research in everyday reading activities.

However, using these strategies effectively requires more than just understanding their mechanics. It's about fostering a learning environment where children feel safe to try different strategies, make mistakes, and learn from them. It's about encouraging a growth mindset, where effort and practice are celebrated. And most importantly, it's about making reading an enjoyable, meaningful experience.

By incorporating these strategies into your reading instruction, you're not just teaching children to read—you're equipping them with the skills to become lifelong learners. You're showing them that reading isn't just about sounding out words on a page; it's about making connections, asking questions, visualizing, inferring, and understanding. In short, you're embracing the Science of Reading and, in turn, opening the door to a world of effective learning. So why wait? Start exploring these strategies today, and witness the transformative power of reading in your learner's life.