Eight Tips to Enhance Reading Comprehension Strategies
Share
Have you helped students improve their phonemic awareness, phonics, and word recognition, only to see them struggle with reading comprehension? Many students experience reading comprehension weakness despite having adequate decoding and vocabulary skills. While educators often implement various comprehension strategies, they may sense something crucial is still missing.
The sensory-cognitive approach to language and literacy addresses this gap by focusing on concept imagery. This process, known as imaging a gestalt, forms the foundation for reading and oral language comprehension.
The National Reading Panel Report (2000) identifies imagery as a research-based strategy for improving comprehension. Applying concept imagery to reading comprehension helps students build mental models that support higher-order thinking skills, like identifying the main idea, making inferences, drawing conclusions, predicting outcomes, and evaluating information. Effective strategies for developing these mental models include checking for vocabulary, activating background knowledge, and questioning students about what the words they read make them picture.
These eight tips will help you apply concept imagery to reading comprehension.
- Introduce explicit instruction to develop concept imagery.
- Pre-check unknown vocabulary.
- Activate background knowledge.
- Monitor for comprehension.
- Ask students for a word summary.
- Check for imagery and understanding.
- Use imagery for higher-order thinking questions.
- Model the thinking process.
1. Introduce Explicit Instruction to Develop Concept Imagery
Improving reading comprehension starts with explicit instruction in concept imagery—teaching students how to create mental images of the language they read. Often, we assume that students can create mental images when this is not the case.
Introduce the idea of imagery or visualization with a student-friendly term, like “picture.” Describe how words on the page turn into pictures in their mind. When a student reads silently or aloud, ask them what the words make them picture. Be specific. For example, ask, “What did you picture for the skyscraper?” or “What do you picture for the people signing the Declaration of Independence?” As Nanci Bell states in the Visualizing and Verbalizing® program manual, for many students, explicit instruction will need to start from the one-word level, to “develop the student’s ability to create mental representations for a word, thus laying the foundation for more language: a phrase, a sentence, or a paragraph.”
2. Pre-check Unknown Vocabulary
Help students develop a specific, concrete mental image for key terms. If necessary, show a picture or video of the word to reinforce the meaning and store it in memory. Then ask imagery questions to ensure the term is visualized, for example, "When the story says the cactus thrives in the desert, do you picture it healthy and strong, or weak and dying?"
3. Activating Prior Knowledge
Prior knowledge plays a role in reading comprehension. It refers to the information and experiences readers already possess about a topic. Activating prior knowledge helps students make connections between what is known and new information, enhancing understanding.
Check for imagery and understanding of words or concepts that may activate prior knowledge. For example, if students are reading a story that takes place on a deserted island, you could ask your students if they have ever been to an island, do they know what to picture for an island, and how they can picture it as deserted. Again, ask questions that include choices. For example, “Do you picture the island covered in sand or rocks?”
4. Monitoring Comprehension
Monitoring comprehension is a crucial skill for effective reading. It involves being aware of one’s understanding of the text and actively taking steps to clarify and improve comprehension.
To help develop this skill, first have students read text aloud so you can also monitor for decoding accuracy and fluency. Prompt students to actively check that they are visualizing the text as they read. If they miscall a word that affects the meaning, your first question should be, “What does that make you picture? Does that make sense?”
Readers can imagine characters, settings, and events, connecting with the text on a deeper level.
5. Ask Students for a Word Summary
After reading the text, ask the student to give a verbal summary in their own words (a word summary). This will be your first assessment of whether they recalled the relevant details and sequence and understood the passage. Students may initially struggle with accurate word summaries, perhaps only giving a few details, but improve with practice and more attention to their imagery. As they become more skilled with verbal word summaries, extend the lesson to written word summaries.
6. Check for Imagery and Understanding
Teach students to visualize the text and create mental images. This technique enhances reading comprehension and retention of information. Ask students questions about key information from the text. Teach students to actively check their imagery and question them for important details to make their image concrete, such as size, shape, color, movement, and background.
7. Use Imagery for Higher-Order Thinking Questions
Prompt students to use their imagery as a foundation for higher-order thinking skills. Higher-order thinking (HOT) questions require a more complex understanding of the text beyond basic facts and details. These include the Main Idea, Inference, Conclusion, and Prediction. Prompt students to use their imagery as a foundation for higher-order thinking, beginning with the main idea. For example, “Based on what you pictured, what do you think the main idea is?”
8. Model the Thinking Process
Demonstrate effective reading comprehension strategies by thinking aloud while reading. This allows learners to observe and internalize the thinking process.
Provide examples from your imagery, especially for more complex and abstract text. When possible, use new vocabulary to increase your students’ word knowledge. Start your example with the words, “I pictured. . .”
To learn more about using imagery to enhance comprehension strategies, access Lindamood-Bell's Toolkit for Educators to download their guide, “8 Tips to Enhance Comprehension Strategies.”