The Connections Between Skills and Strategies
The relationship between skills and the strategies we teach to reach the skills.
My reading class yesterday focused on teaching reading strategies to support students’ comprehension. I was teaching them how to plan and teach an effective minilesson based on the strategy they wanted the students to learn and try out in their own reading. During class a great question came up - “What is the difference between a skill and a strategy?” Skills and strategies are often confused, and it’s important to know the difference.
Skills are the WHAT of teaching. They are the actions that students take as they are reading a text or working on a writing piece. Sometimes, skills are applied automatically as students are engaging in reading and writing tasks, however, when the skill is not instinctive, strategies should be taught so that the skill can be practiced. Some reading skills include: activating prior knowledge, predicting, sequencing, inferring, and summarizing. These skills support a student’s reading comprehension.
Two (of the many!) strategies to teach the skill of inferring.
Strategies are the WAYS of teaching and they can help students develop an understanding of a particular concept. Strategies are a step-by-step approach that when applied can help accomplish the skill. There are many different strategies that can be taught and implemented in order to reach the skill. So, there is not just one strategy that will teach the skill of inferencing. In fact, there are many! Here’s an example of a strategy - in order to teach students the skill of summarizing, strategies such as identifying the main idea and supporting details or determining what a character wants can be taught to students. In my blog post earlier this week, I taught my daughter the strategy of asking the question, “Where is the character now?” to support the skill of inferencing.
In the past, I have asked students to share one of their personal (non school related!) skills and then demonstrate a strategy they use to apply that skill to their own life. One of my favorite examples was when a student demonstrated a particular strategy that she applied to her skill of making balloon animals at family members’ birthday parties! She explained to the class that she stretched the balloons in a particular manner, twisting them to create notches which both allowed her to shape the balloons while also reducing the risk that it would pop. This activity allows students to see the connections between skills and strategies and how they work together. In this case, how creating the balloon animal (the skill) is aided by adding notches to the balloon (the strategy).
What strategies are you teaching to support particular reading or writing skills? Tomorrow, I will share another reading strategy and the materials that I used with my class!