Chapter 3 Developing Reading Strategies

Strategic readers attack text. Their eyes dart ahead in some places, barely skimming the words. They might stop to focus on one word, or a part of a word. Suddenly, they double back to the beginning of a sentence and then jump ahead again. These eye movements reflect cognitive activity (Pollatsek & Rayner, 1990). Scrutinizing, checking, comparing, and monitoring, successful readers construct understanding. They search for the information they want in the right places, allocating attention to the elements that help them grasp words, sentences, and texts. They check what they are reading against what they already know, make predictions about what is to come, and continually construct and revise a sense of the whole out of the parts. Successful readers are not passive or reactive; they use strategic skills to pursue meaning (Palincsar & Klenk, 1991).