Fix-Up Strategy

What Is Fix-Up Strategy

A fix-up strategy is a conscious technique a reader uses to repair comprehension when understanding breaks down mid-text. Common fix-up strategies include rereading difficult passages, reading ahead to gather context, skipping unfamiliar words temporarily, breaking sentences into smaller chunks, or using surrounding text to infer word meaning. These are metacognitive tools that help readers stay engaged rather than abandoning a text.

Struggling readers, particularly those with dyslexia or processing deficits, often lack systematic fix-up strategies. They may give up when they encounter a challenging word or confusing sentence, rather than trying multiple approaches. Teaching explicit fix-up strategies closes this gap and gives students agency over their own reading difficulties.

Why It Matters

Independent reading depends on fix-up strategies. Without them, readers stop progressing when text becomes challenging. Research shows that proficient readers naturally deploy multiple strategies when comprehension falters, but struggling readers often do not.

For students following an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for reading, fix-up strategies are often a required instructional component. Teachers must explicitly teach and monitor which strategies a student can access and use consistently. Students working within Orton-Gillingham or similar structured literacy programs learn fix-up strategies alongside phonics instruction, ensuring they have both decoding skills and recovery tools when decoding fails.

At home, parents who understand fix-up strategies can model them during read-alouds and shared reading, normalizing the fact that all readers encounter difficulty. This reduces frustration and builds reading confidence.

Practical Fix-Up Strategies

• Reread the sentence or paragraph: Often the second read reveals meaning missed on the first pass, especially for readers processing at slower speeds.
• Read ahead: Continuing past a confusing point sometimes provides clarifying information or context that makes the original passage clear in retrospect.
• Use context clues: Look at surrounding words and sentences to infer the meaning of an unknown word rather than stopping to look it up.
• Break the sentence into chunks: Complex sentences overwhelm working memory. Pausing after phrases or clauses helps manage information load.
• Skip and return: Mark a difficult word or concept and continue reading, then circle back to address it once general meaning is established.
• Sound out or chunk syllables: For decodable words, breaking them into smaller units activates phonics skills, particularly valuable for students trained in Orton-Gillingham methods.
• Visualize or retell: Pausing to picture what is happening or summarize the last sentence ensures active engagement and catches comprehension gaps early.

Implementing Fix-Up Strategies

Explicit instruction is required. Teachers should name the strategy, model it aloud with think-aloud narration, have students practice with guided text, then gradually release responsibility. A student needs to see an adult use rereading to solve a problem multiple times before deploying it independently.

Match strategies to reading level and student strengths. A beginner reader working at Level E (Fountas and Pinnell) benefits most from rereading and monitoring comprehension at sentence level. An intermediate reader at Level L can handle read-ahead strategies and more complex context work. Students with dyslexia may rely heavily on context and visualization because phonics processing is slower.

Monitor and reinforce. Ask students "What did you do when that word didn't make sense?" Track which strategies appear in their reading journals or running records. An effective IEP includes measurable goals around strategy use, such as "Student will independently use context clues or reread to solve 80% of comprehension disruptions during guided reading."

Common Questions

• Should I stop my child to teach a fix-up strategy, or let them read? During independent reading, let them read. During guided reading or read-aloud, pause occasionally to model a strategy. The goal is internalization over time, not interrupting every difficult word.
• My child just skips hard words. How do I encourage a fix-up strategy instead? Validate that skipping is actually a legitimate strategy, then teach them to return to those words. Ask "Did that skip change whether you understood the sentence?" This builds awareness that some words matter more than others.
• Are fix-up strategies the same as comprehension strategies? No. Comprehension strategies are broader techniques for understanding (like summarizing or making predictions). Fix-up strategies are specifically for moments when comprehension breaks down. They are related but distinct.

Related Concepts

• Monitoring Comprehension - the awareness that you are or are not understanding, which triggers the need for a fix-up strategy in the first place.
• Context Clues - one of the most common fix-up strategies, using surrounding words and sentences to infer meaning.
• Comprehension - the ultimate goal that fix-up strategies support.