Reading Strategy: Monitor Your Reading

Some ideas won’t always make sense the first time you read them. If there is something that confuses you, clarify ideas by thinking about what you already know to make the new information clear.

Reading Strategy Monitor Your Reading
    How to Clarify Ideas

  • 1. As you read, stop if something is not clear.

  • 2. Have you seen, heard, or read something like this before?

  • 3. Use what you already know to make the ideas more clear.

Strategy in Action

Read the text in the box. Then see how one student used what he already knew to clarify ideas.

Look Into the Text

Once, long ago, there lived a king who was very proud of his clever wits. So proud of them was he that he vowed to marry only a woman as clever as he.

Now, one day the king stopped at an inn. There he heard the innkeeper boasting about his daughter, Rachel, who was so clever she could solve any riddle.

What I ReadThe king was so proud of his clever wits that he vowed to marry only a woman as clever as he was.
What I KnowMy uncle is very choosy about who he will marry. He doesn’t think any woman is good enough for him.
So …I think the king is like my uncle. He has trouble finding a woman to marry because he thinks so much of himself.

Clarification Chart

Practice Together

Reread the passage above. Follow the steps in the How-To box to clarify another idea. Make a Clarification Chart.