What do we know and what do we do to help struggling readers become stronger readers? This has been the focal point of Dr. Kathy Jongsma's opening speech at the Qatar TESOL's Third International Conference on April 11,2008.

After having presented a lot of very useful statistics about illiteracy around the world in general and within the Arab world in particular, Dr. Kathy moved on displaying six fundamental strategies that need much of teacher and student attention.

1. How to monitor their comprehension as they read.

2. How to use graphic and semantic organizers.

3.  How to answer questions.

4.  How to generate or ask questions.

5.  How to recognize the structure or    structures they encounter in the text.

6.  How to summarize the text and what they have learned from their reading.

 However, to move from theory to practice, Dr. Kathy presented some good activities that can be used within the classroom. These activities aimed at:

• Monitoring Comprehension

• Graphic and Semantic Organizers

• Generating and Answering Questions

• Recognizing Text Structure

• Summarizing

What Good Readers Do That Poor Readers Don’t: Implications From Research Around the World (PPT)