Reading Comprehension: 
The Thinking Process Approach-Connect and Question

All thought in which people engage is considered within the context of experience and knowledge. We do not think or read in a vacuum. New information is stacked up against background knowledge. New ideas are measured against history, personal and learned.

To read, to really read and not just process letters into words, is to consider a text in relation to what is already known—either through previous reading or viewing or having lived a life experience: to make connections with self, texts, and world. Thoughtful reading requires one to question the relationship between new knowledge and prior knowledge. Such thought and consideration must also engage a self-monitoring device—the reader must question if the relationships stack up and if not, return to the text and reread, or reason the matter through.

This workshop offers activities and materials that reinforce instruction and enhance transfer to enable student readers to make these connecting and questioning automatic strategies in their own reading processes.