S - Summarize: learners ask what the passage is about?

S - Synthesize: learners state how the short passages fit in with the full passage, what they have learned and how it fits with what they already know.⁴⁰

The following are strategies for understanding textbooks - for more advanced readers:

ConStruct procedure: this strategy involves doing several readings of a passage and developing a diagram that depicts the context of the passage. There are four steps to this procedure:

1. Learners quickly read the passage and determine the main topic and any subtopics; they try to discover as much as possible from the title, subtitles, introductory paragraphs, illustrations or figures.
2. Then the learners read the text thoroughly to find meaning and add information to the framework developed above; non-essential information is to be ignored at this point.
3. Before the learners rea d again, they look over the diagram to see if there is information they don't understand and if so they should go back for clarification.
4. Finally the learners scan the text for non-essential information and determine if it should be added to the diagram.⁴¹

Multipass: this strategy is helpful when learners only need to gain the essential information from the text. It is similar to the ConStruct procedure but doesn't require the thorough reading and diagram. It recommends that learners make three "passes" through the text.

• First pass: become familiar with the main ideas and organization of each chapter.
• Next pass: look at the questions at the end to determine what should be learned from the text and take a guess at the answers.
• Final pass: read the text to find the answers and self-test by answering each question with the information gained from the final pass.⁴²