AbstractThis study examines the effect of teaching at‐risk first graders paraphrasing and self‐verbalization techniques. The intent of this instruction is to enhance students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. The study asks, will such a procedure produce positive growth in reading achievement? Experimenters examined three groups of students. The treatment provides one experimental group with an academic year of learning with paraphrasing techniques taught as an integral part of a holistic supplemental reading program. A second group is instructed in the use of paraphrasing for only the second semester. By providing the second group with the treatment for only the latter half of the school year, examiners are able to compare the effectiveness of the treatment using children with little or no knowledge of effective strategy use to children having one semester of classroom reading instruction. The third group served as a control. Results on standardized reading tests revealed that the treatment groups performed at statistically higher levels than the control group.