Recent research shows that the dominant practice in mathematics education in Sweden involves students working individually from a textbook. However, to read mathematical texts involves comprehending the global meaning from the page and this requires specific reading skills. In this study, the reading strategies of six 10-year old students, with different levels of mathematical achievement, are identified. The analysis is based on Palinscar and Brown’s reciprocal activities prediction, clarification and summarisation and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). In this small study, high achieving students more often described that they used appropriate reading strategies.