Back to Basics: 6 Reading Strategies

Our new way of teaching has us going back to basics in a lot of ways. Lessons we used to teach in the classroom are now taking twice as long through a screen.

In addition to building relationships with students through Zoom, answering constant emails, and keeping a pulse on our mental health, teachers are bending over backwards to continue to teach with the same rigor that our kids are used to.

The truth is if you’re feeling stressed about getting every aspect of the reading standards taught this year, give yourself permission. Permission to do less. Permission to go back to basics. Permission to prioritize certain standards over the others.

Every student, no matter the age, will always need to use 6 key reading strategies. Whatever your situation looks like this school year, these 6 strategies you can continue to teach. Each reading standard has these embedded and are the basis of teaching more complex reading skills.

So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed with how to maintain the teaching you’re used to, go back to basics, and work on these strategies with your students. Ensuring that your students can master these reading skills, will set them up for continued success.

Looking for specific text evidence and key details is a skill that students will utilize in multiple content areas year after year.

Modeling for students how to pause while they’re reading and check for understanding is one of those skills that kind of gets forgotten during the school year. Now is the time to bring this skill to the forefront!

This is one skill that will always need continued practice!!

Students as young as preschoolers can practice this strategy! Anytime you read a picture book or novel out loud, pause every once in a while and ask one simple question: “What do you think is going to happen next?” This is a great way to practice making predictions, while working on inferring.

Paying attention to the various characters in your stories and analyzing the different changes they go through, while comparing and contrasting them, is the basis for many of the Common Core reading standards.

Having students summarize what they read helps them become strong, independent readers. After they read a piece of text or a story, encourage them to retell what they read to someone else to practice this skill.

These 6 reading strategies lay the foundation for capable and independent readers. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with navigating this new way of teaching, reinforce these strategies through fun and engaging read alouds!