INSERT STRATEGY

Proficient readers:

• Know when the text is making sense and when it does not.
• Identify difficulties in comprehension at the word, sentence and whole text-levels.

 

Students:

• Need to understand that self-monitoring is essential to understanding text.
• They must identify when they understand their reading, and know when their comprehension breaks down.

 

The INSERT strategy is a way for students to be conscious of their thinking without taking extensive notes.  Students can place the codes on post-it notes. You can invent your own coding system that matches the subject area.
 

\/   This confirms what I already knew.

x     This contradicts what I thought.

!       Wow!  This is an interesting fact/idea.

+      I want more information about this.

?     This is confusing and unclear to me.