12 Strategies

The Strategies Revisited: Summarising

The Strategies Revisited: Summarising

Demonstrating the ability to summarise an entire text accurately illustrates a student has understood it at a high level, but also illustrates that they are not distracted by what is not important within it and can distil their understanding to its most essential parts.

The Strategies Revisited: Interpreting Figurative Language

The Strategies Revisited: Interpreting Figurative Language

Reading figurative language requires a more developed level of reading comprehension because it involves a student not simply understanding what is directly stated but moving to thinking in a more abstract and complex way.

The Strategies Revisited: Identifying Author’s Purpose

The Strategies Revisited: Identifying Author’s Purpose

Questions about Identifying Author’s Purpose ask a student to consider why the author wrote the passage, which involves thinking about a text as an artefact created for a specific reason and with a specific agenda.

The Strategies Revisited: Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion

The Strategies Revisited: Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion

Being able to look at information and think about the reasoning that led to its creation – and whether it is a verifiable fact, or something slanted by the agenda of those providing it – is an important life skill, and so one of the twelve reading strategies that make up CARS & STARS Online.

The Strategies Revisited: Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences

The Strategies Revisited: Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences

Questions about Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences move students from a direct, lower-order level of thinking about texts read to a more indirect, higher-order level of thinking, where meaning is derived not simply from what is explicitly stated but from critically and imaginatively engaging with a text to think about the story and events beyond those presented in it.

The Strategies Revisited: Finding Word Meaning in Context

The Strategies Revisited: Finding Word Meaning in Context

Finding Word Meaning in Context is a crucial skill that develops as students move from lower-order to higher-order thinking about the texts that they read and illustrates the development of comprehension from rote learning to critically and creatively engaging with text.

The Strategies Revisited: Making Predictions

The Strategies Revisited: Making Predictions

In correctly answering questions about predictions in CARS & STARS Online a student can plausibly and realistically suggest what might happen next given the events depicted.

The Strategies Revisited: Comparing and Contrasting

The Strategies Revisited: Comparing and Contrasting

The ability to compare and contrast is a fundamental aspect of reading comprehension and so an important one of the twelve central reading strategies that make up CARS & STARS Online.

The Strategies Revisited: Recognising Cause and Effect

The Strategies Revisited: Recognising Cause and Effect

In order to truly understand what is happening in a story it is absolutely integral to be able to understand why something is happening. For this reason, Recognising Cause and Effect is one of the bedrock strategies featured in CARS & STARS Online, and recurs throughout every level of the program.

The Strategies Revisited: Understanding Sequence

The Strategies Revisited: Understanding Sequence

The sequence in which ideas are presented in a text is one of the first things students must be able to ascertain to be able to fully derive meaning from it, and so the notion of Understanding Sequence is a crucial factor in reading comprehension and one of the 12 central reading strategies in CARS & STARS Online.

The Strategies Revisited: Recalling Facts and Details

The Strategies Revisited: Recalling Facts and Details

The ability to recall facts and details in a reading passage illustrates that the student has been paying attention, but also that they have gone some way to understanding what they have read before they have been asked to reflect on it further.

The Strategies Revisited: Finding the Main Idea

The Strategies Revisited: Finding the Main Idea

The main idea of a reading passage is a sentence that tells what the passage is mostly about. Finding the Main Idea is therefore a vitally important skill, and thus it is quite rightly one of the 12 Reading Strategies that underpin CARS & STARS Online.

Identifying Fact and Fiction

Identifying Fact and Fiction

While facts can be proven, opinions cannot, even though they may be expressed as if they are definitive statements. CARS & STARS Online helps students become the kind of readers who can easily – and effortlessly – evaluate a text to determine if it is fact or fiction.

Getting to the Heart of It

Getting to the Heart of It

Summarising is the last of the twelve main reading strategies that underpin the CARS & STARS Online reading comprehension program. Demonstrating the ability to summarise an entire text shows that a student has understood it at a high level, but also illustrates that they are not distracted by what is not important within it and can distil their understanding to its most essential parts.

Figuratively Speaking

Figuratively Speaking

Reading figurative language requires a more developed level of reading comprehension because it involves a student not simply understanding what is directly stated but moving to thinking in a more abstract and complex way. For this reason, the skill of being able to interpret figurative language is a vital one for any advanced reader, and as such it makes up one of the twelve main reading strategies that underpin the CARS & STARS Online reading comprehension program.

How we Tell a Truth from an Opinion

How we Tell a Truth from an Opinion

Being able to look at information and think about the reasoning that led to its creation – and whether it is a verifiable fact or something slanted by the agenda of those providing it – is an important life skill, and so one of the twelve reading strategies that make up CARS & STARS Online.

Reading Beyond the Text

Reading Beyond the Text

Questions about Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences move students from a direct, lower-order level of thinking about texts read to a more indirect, higher-order level of thinking, where meaning is derived not simply from what is explicitly stated but from critically and imaginatively engaging with a text to think about the story and events beyond those presented in it.

Out of context, what's the meaning?

Out of context, what's the meaning?

Finding Word Meaning in Context is a crucial skill that develops as students move from lower-order to higher-order thinking about the texts that they read and illustrates the development of comprehension from rote learning to critically and creatively engaging with text read.

Comparative Thinking, Effective Instruction and Its Role in Student Achievement

Comparative Thinking, Effective Instruction and Its Role in Student Achievement

The ability to compare and contrast is a fundamental aspect of reading comprehension and so an important one of the twelve central reading strategies that make up CARS & STARS Online.

How Do You Effectively Determine Cause and Effect?

How Do You Effectively Determine Cause and Effect?

In order to truly understand what is happening in a story it is absolutely integral to be able to understand why something is happening. For this reason, Recognising Cause and Effect is one of the bedrock strategies featured in CARS & STARS Online, and recurs throughout every level of the program.

A COMPLETE FAMILY OF PRODUCTS

Discover how CARS & STARS Online’s integrated teaching and learning system gives teachers the insights and instructional tools to differentiate and support student growth.

CARS

CARS

Get the data you need to drive instruction and measure progress.

STARS

STARS

Target instruction on the essential reading comprehension strategies.

FOCUS Reading

FOCUS Reading

Concentrated practice to reinforce essential reading strategies.

WHAT PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS AND PARENTS ARE SAYING

This differentiated program allows students to read texts which are at a level suitable for their current ability and leads to students being more engaged in reading lessons. As a result, they can experience success and improve their reading and comprehension abilities. CARS & STARS Online is an important part of the English program and we are seeing fantastic improvement across all years in students' reading and comprehension abilities.

Linda Samardali
Head of Department from Kinross College

I've found CARS & STARS Online has really helped in improving my children's reading skills. The skills were all clearly presented with a lot of samples and practice opportunities. The student report also gives the parents a clear guide as to which areas need reinforcement and which areas each child is strong in.

Shannon Zhao
Parent from Sydney

I have found CARS & STARS Online very beneficial, especially during our time teaching and learning remotely. The ability to track live what the students are doing was helpful to ensure that they were remaining on task and to provide feedback.

Brent Ritchie
Teacher from Haileybury

Now that I understand how to use the online program and utilise the tools correctly, I am enjoying using CARS & STARS Online. The ability to locate and download the different reports is phenomenal!

Amber Rains
Teacher from Kambala

I am a bit of a technophobe but using CARS & STARS Online has certainly made life easier and the kids have found it easy to navigate.

Jo Oram
Teacher from Prescott College Southern

CARS & STARS Online has become a very useful tool for my staff to implement effective teaching and learning programs. Having a tool that gives timely assessment results, meets students at their level of need and allows them to see exactly what students are working on in real-time is time effective and impacts on future goals.

The detailed assessment data generated by CARS & STARS Online informs the specific direction of their reading and comprehension teaching. Students report they enjoy the tasks and feel a real sense of accomplishment as they work through the lessons and assessments at their own pace.

Craig Brown
Principal from Toongabbie Public School

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