Many experts refer to the 6 major comprehension strategies: connecting, questioning, predicting, imaging/visualizing, inferring, and synthesizing. 95 Percent Group recommends that they be taught in the order listed above and shown graphically on the continuum available for download.
Children learn to connect and question early on; these strategies are followed by predicting, which is a natural outgrowth of asking a question. Being able to visualize with all five senses allows a reader to imagine what might be occurring above and beyond what the author says; this leads naturally to generating an inference which requires going beyond what the author explicitly says to combine background knowledge with clues in the text. Synthesizing is last.
Download this continuum of comprehension strategies.