How a Skilled Reader Reads

People who read well use many clues to understand what they're reading:

1. The alphabet and its sounds.
2. Words they know by sight.
3. Ways different parts of words are usually pronounced.
4. The normal meanings words have.
5. Knowledge about the subject.
6. What they want out of what they're reading.

Before, during, and after reading, they help themselves understand with these skills:

1. They remind themselves of things they already know.
2. They decide what's important and what's not important in what they're reading.
3. They make images in their heads of what they read about (pictures, sounds, even smells, tastes, and feelings).
4. They use clues in the writing to guess what the writer means. That is, they make inferences.
5. They retell, or summarize to themselves, what they're reading.
6. They go back and figure things out if they don't understand them.