Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement; Second Edition

Authors: Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis            

Introduction to Strategies That Work

Reading comprehension is about much more than answering literal questions at the end of a passage, story, or chapter. Reading comprehension is an ongoing process of evolving thinking. When readers read, they carry on an inner conversation with the text. Readers respond with delight, wonder, even outrage. They question the text, argue with the author, nod their heads in agreement. They make connections, ask questions, and draw inferences to better understand and learn from what they read.

The noted children's author Madeleine L'Engle says, "Readers usually grossly underestimate their own importance. If a reader cannot create a book along with the writer, the book will never come to life... The author and the reader 'know' each other. They meet in the bridge of words (1995)." We want our students to recognize how important their thinking is when they read. It's our job as teachers to convince students that their thoughts, ideas, and interpretations matter. When readers engage in the text and listen to their inner conversations, they enhance their understanding, build knowledge, and develop insight. Strategies That Work describes the inner conversation readers have as they read and the strategies they use to understand their reading.

The second edition is divided into four parts:

Part I, The Foundation of Meaning, explains how research-based comprehension strategies support and enhance student learning. A new chapter in the second edition highlights the importance of active literacy instruction to increase the engagement of students in meaningful work.

Part II, Strategy Lessons, describes mini-lessons where teachers and students apply the reading strategies, demonstrate response options for using the strategies, and practice meaningful assessments. New to the second edition are a new chapter, Monitoring Comprehension, which gives additional attention to the inner conversation that good readers must become aware of, and assessment commentaries that accompany new student work samples at the end of each chapter in Part II. These commentaries show how teachers can assess student learning by carefully examining various forms of student reading response.

Part III, Comprehension Across the Curriculum, is brand new. Its chapters describe how to integrate strategy instruction in the content areas and how to help students apply reading strategies to textbook reading and test reading.

Part IV, Resources That Support Strategy Instruction, provides an annotated selection of picture books and other resources for comprehension instruction, including bibliographies of magazines and other periodicals and websites for students, and professional resources for selecting children's books. These lists of resources have been thoroughly updated for the second edition.

                                                             Study Guide for Strategies That Work, Second Edition  Copyright @2007 by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis