The first step is to increase their prior knowledge before learning. Preparing students to read before the reading takes place improves their comprehension because learners link new information and experiences to prior knowledge and events. The following activities can build prior knowledge:
Brainstorm and Categorize- Organize students into pairs or small groups. Ask students to talk about what they think they know about the topic for four to five minutes. Give two to three minutes for students to write in their journals everything they recall about the topic and any new ideas they learned from their group members. Record all of the students’ ideas on chart paper. Reread the list, then model how you categorize. Ask students to help you place items under the category. Allow pairs or groups to create their own categories in their journals and organize items under the headings. Adjust incorrect ideas as you study and add new ideas.
- Preview/Analyze/Connect- Organize students into pairs or groups. Ask students to preview a section of a textbook or trade book by examining the text features and graphic sources. Have students silently think about ideas and connections they make from their preview, then share with the group. You may have to prompt students who are having trouble making connections.
- Fast-Write- Explain to students that during a fast-write you write about a topic for several minutes without stopping. Model a fast-write, showing what to do when you get stuck. After students’ fast-writes, call on volunteers to read them to expand everyone’s knowledge.
- Anticipation Guide- Identify the concepts you want students to understand and create several opinionated statements that can support or challenge students’ current opinions about a topic. Students will read each statement and put a check if they agree or x if they disagree. Give students an opportunity to share reactions and reasons for them. At the end of the lesson or unit, return to the anticipation guide to reread statements and mark responses again. Students should write reasons for changes.
The next step is to develop ways to monitor and improve their comprehension while learning. Good readers use metacognition—monitoring what is read to know what is understood and what is confusing, calling forth strategies to keep reading on track. These self-monitoring strategies help students to recognize when they are struggling with understanding, to identify what in the text is confusing, and to choose the approach that will help them make sense of the passage. When you teach self-monitoring strategies, you provide students with tools that enable them to solve reading problems throughout life. The following activities can be used during reading:
- Using Context Clues to Figure out New Words- Choose three to four sentences from students’ reading. Think aloud and model how you use clues in the text to figure out a word’s meaning. Continue the process with each difficult word. Ask students to study a sample and write the context clues that enabled them to determine the word’s meaning. Share and continue practicing with texts students are using. (Sometimes context clues aren’t there. You will also need to preteach concepts and vocabulary and teach the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and roots or word parts.)
- Read/Pause/Retell/Reread or Read On- Print the passage on a blank transparency or chart paper. Read the passage to students. Think aloud and express your feelings. Recap everything you remember from the first reading without looking at the passage. Reread the passage out loud to students, then silently read it to yourself. Retell again, and don’t look at the text. Point out how much more you remembered by rereading the passage. Explain how sometimes you have to reread a difficult passage three times. Tell students that if you recall enough information, then you can continue to read. Have students practice in pairs.
- Paired
Reading - Highlighters, sticky notes, and different forms such as double-entry diaries- Any of these tools for marking text help students hold their thinking so they when they are reading difficult text, they can remember and reuse what they’ve read.
After reading students need to apply the new information to meaningful experiences. Engaging students in after reading activities help them learn and recall information. The activities offer teachers many assessment opportunities to determine those who can move on or extend their knowledge and those who continue to need extra help. The activities allow students to process new information and build new understandings. Examples of such activities include:
- Graphic Organizers- Allow students to create a visual of essential ideas, details, or concepts from their reading. Examples include concept webs, the five w’s web, and t-charts.
Connect and Apply-Offer prompts and questions to enable students to connect information to their own lives, to other texts, or to the world.
- Visualizing- Ask students to visualize information as you read aloud sections from the text. Have students draw information in a sequence and use their drawings to discuss the information with a partner, group, or the class.
- Summarize Through Journal Writing- Read the passage several times. Have students think about the main points in the piece and list four to five of the main points on paper. Write a topic sentence. Put the main points in a logical order and turn each main point into a complete sentence. Write a wrap-up sentence or conclusion that ties all the points together.
Students will need a lot of modeling and practice for each strategy. If you really focus on a couple of the strategies at each step, students will become very successful at thinking purposefully about what they are learning before reading, while reading, and after reading. Students will have a plan to take them through all reading endeavors in life.
