During-Reading Comprehension Strategies

We have covered many of the pre-reading strategies that help students build their reading comprehension. In this section we will look at building reading comprehension with during-reading strategies.

Some of the most essential during-reading strategies are:

• Teaching story structure
• Prediction
• Visualization
• Guided questions

Story Structure

Since young readers are mostly reading narrative texts, it is essential to introduce them to story structure and the concepts of beginning, middle, and end. As each book is read, ask students to identify what the “problem” is in the beginning. Next ask them what actions the characters took in the middle of the story to try to overcome the problem. Finally, ask them what the solution to the problem was at the end. As students learn the story structure, you can show them how specific events link the beginning, middle, and the end.