Untangling Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Assisting Struggling Readers in the Primary Grades

Although early reading instruction focuses on phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle, research indicates that reading comprehension strategies can be effectively taught to young students. Peer-reviewed studies that employed experimental or quasi-experimental designs and included children between the ages of five and nine, some of whom had disabilities or were determined to be at-risk for academic failure, were examined. Five categories of reading comprehension strategies (peer learning, self-questioning, story grammar and text structure, story mapping and graphic organizers, and vocabulary development) that have increased the reading comprehension abilities of young students were identified and discussed. Students appeared to be most successful when two or more strategies were combined. Instructional choices teachers might make in light of the current research are discussed.