Reading+Strategies+-+Clarify

 = =  =Clarify - Stop and pay attention  Check your understanding  =

**Good readers stop to think about their reading and know what to do when they don't understand.**
Proficient readers monitor their comprehension during reading - they know when the text they are reading or listening to makes sense, when it does not, what does not make sense, and whether the unclear portions are critical to overall understanding of the piece.

Proficient readers can identify when the text is comprehensible and the degree to which they understand it. They can identify ways in which a text becomes gradually more understandable by reading past an unclear portion and/or by rereading part or all of the text.

Proficient readers know what they need to comprehend from a text - they are aware of their purpose for reading and what will be required of them with rerspect to reporting on their reading.

Proficient readers are aware of the purpose for their reading and direct special attention to the parts of the text they most need to comprehend for that purpose.

Proficient readers identify difficulties they have in comprehending at the word, sentence and whole text levels. They are flexible in their use of tactics to revise their thinking and solve different types of comprehension problems.
 * Proficient readers solve word and sentence level problems with surface structure stratgies such as decoding strategies and/or word analysis
 * Proficient readers solve text level problems by monitoring, evaluating, and making revisions to their evolving interpretation of the text while reading. They then compare the emerging meaning to their background knowledge and make adjustments to incorporate new information into existing memory stores.

Readers can solve problems by:
 * Using the systems of language
 * asking themselves "does this make sense?"
 * Selecting the most appropriate "fix it" strategies from one of the systems of language to restore meaningful reading

**"FIX IT" Strategies**
 * Rereading
 * Reading ahead
 * Making predictions
 * Drawing inferences
 * Raising new questions
 * Figuring out unknown words
 * Seeking help from outside sources

Here is a link to an amazing Clarifying (or in this instance it is called MONITORING) mini-lesson by Angela Maiers. The video is long - its 20 minutes but the action happens from 4.00 minutes in. Please start to watch this lesson for as long as you are able! (up to about 16.00 minutes)

 