Purpose:

To help learners improve comprehension and retention of what they have read

Preparation time:

None

Materials:

Reading passage

Procedure:

1.       Select and preview the content of a reading passage.

2.       Discuss with your learner the need for developing good reading comprehension strategies. Note that the learner can later use this strategy on his/her own.

3.       Give the learner the reading passage and ask him/her to read the first paragraph or sentence, depending on complexity, etc.

4.       Ask the learner to summarize the passage in his/her own words.

5.       Ask the learner to identify what is important in the passage, i.e., what does he/she want/need to remember.

6.       Ask the learner to predict what the next sentence/paragraph will say.

7.       Continue this process throughout the passage.

8.       When finished reading, ask the learner to summarize the entire article and identify the most important information.

9.       Review the steps with the learner. Discuss what went well. Encourage him/her to do the reading exercise alone. Share a cheat sheet with the steps listed:

Read sentence/paragraph

Summarize sentence/paragraph

Identify important parts of sentence/paragraph

Predict what the next sentence/paragraph will be about