READ,
EXAMINE, DECIDE, WRITE (REDW) Strategy IN READING
COMPREHENSION
Definition of REDW Strategy
According to Strichart (2009), there are a variety of different strategies that an individual can
use to read a particular piece of material, but it is important for an
individual to find the best strategy for the type of resource that the
individual is using. There is a wide range of different written materials that
an individual may have to use in order to study for an exam, interview, or
other similar purpose and each type of written material requires a different
reading strategy in order to use that resource in the most effective way possible.
One of the strategies that an individual can use to read and study a variety of
different material is known as Read, Examine, Decide, and Write (REDW.) This
reading strategy is primarily intended for reading materials that the
individual is having difficulty understanding. As a result, REDW is usually
used for textbooks or other material that the individual cannot understand even
though the individual has attempted to understand the information by reading
the material very slowly and carefully. So, the writer can conclude that REDW strategy is a good strategy to use
by the students to comprehend the information contained in reading materials.
The steps of REDW
Strategy
According to Strichart (2009), Each
of the letters in REDW strategy
stands for a step in the strategy. It means that there are four steps in this
strategy. Those are:
a.
Read
Read
the entire paragraph to get an idea of what the paragraph is about. You may
find it helpful to whisper the words as you read or to form a picture in your
mind of what you are reading. Once you have a general idea of what the
paragraph is about.
b.
Examine
Examine
each sentence in the paragraph to identify the important words that tell what
the sentence is about. Ignore the words that are not needed to tell what the
sentence is about. If you are allowed to, draw a line through the words to be
ignored. For each sentence, write a sheet of paper the words that tell what the
sentence is about.
c.
Decide
Reread
the words you wrote for each sentence in the paragraph. Decide which sentence
contains the words you wrote that best describe the main idea of the paragraph.
These words are the main idea of the paragraph. The sentence that contains
these words is the topic sentence. The other words you wrote are the supporting
details for the main idea.
d.
Write
Write
the main idea for each paragraph in your notebook. This will provide you with a
written record of the most important ideas you learned. This written record
will be helpful if you have to take a test that covers the reading assignment.
