8 Reading Strategies That Work

Reading strategies are very important for developing good reading skills. They help children to make meaning out of unfamiliar words and ideas in a variety of ways. Many children get stuck when they rely on only one or two strategies. Introducing these 8 strategies and practicing them will give them the tools to better understand the material they are reading.

About 3 years ago, I was introduced to these cute animals and their uses as reading strategies. I loved how the children engaged with them. I had to get my own stuffies so that they could actually hold them and interact with them.  I use them all the time now in my guided reading groups.

Eagle Eye is one of the strategies most used by young children. It uses pictures to convey meaning. In emergent books there are very few words and lots of pictures. This strategy is very effective for more advanced readers as well.

Lips the Fish helps children focus on the beginning of the word. It helps them to remember to say the beginning sound. Often this is enough to help them figure out what the word might be.

Stretchy Snake helps children to stretch out the sounds rather than individually saying each one. Making each sound separately is choppy. When they stretch the sounds of the words they are still connected and they can hear how they fit together.

Skippy Frog is useful when children get stuck on a word and can't move on. This strategy encourages them to go on and make meaning by reading the next part of the sentence or passage. When they figure it out, they are supposed to go back and read the word that they were stuck on. The danger here, is that they don't always go back, so it is a strategy that should be used sparingly.

Chunky Monkey is a great strategy for helping children who are sounding out every letter. It encourages them to start looking for small words or chunks of letters inside the word that they already know.

Flippy Dolphin is used for flipping to the long vowel when the short vowel doesn't make sense.

Careful Caterpillar reminds children to read the entire word. Often children only look at the beginning of words and add in words that are incorrect that start the same way. By encouraging them to look at the whole word, they will make fewer errors and their understanding will increase.

Tryin' Lion reminds children to go back and try again when they are not sure what it means. After working through a sentence with other strategies sometimes rereading the sentence helps to make the meaning clearer.

I created a set of bookmarks and posters to go with these strategies. If you would like to get a copy of these bookmarks and posters, click the image below.

I hope you find these tools helpful with your young readers. I would love to hear how you use strategies in reading.

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