Reading Strategies! What Good Readers Do to Build Meaning From Text

Are you the type of reader you’d like to be? Do you enjoy reading? Do you feel like you are good at reading? Do you ever read when you don’t have to? Do you know the types of text you’re good at and the types of texts with which you struggle? –Did you even notice that all texts aren’t the same type? Do you understand about why reading is important and valuable? Do you ever wish you felt better about reading?

Metacognition Being metacognitive means… –Thinking about your thinking. It’s a GOOD thing to be aware of your thinking! This includes things like… –Recognizing when you don’t understand something –Noticing steps and strategies you use that help you learn better Note-taking strategies Study strategies Learning styles “Hearing the voice” as you read

Do you hear the voice in your head when you read? Good readers have an abundant, active stream of thoughts going through their head as they read. “But what if I don’t?” –Some people don’t even notice this until it’s pointed out to them. –Some people have to train that voice to speak because they are not used to thinking while reading since they’re not sure what to think about!

What should the voice be saying? “I hate reading.” –NO! Of course not! The reason that many kids don’t like reading is because they are passive. They’re not involved in their reading, so they’re bored. –Teaching yourself to be engaged in your reading is your first step to enjoying it and understanding it more.

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 1. Activating Schema (prior knowledge) Relate what you read to what you already know –Sometimes new reading changes your schema! Use schema to relate text to… –World Knowledge (Text-to-World) History, current events –Text Knowledge (Text-to-Self) Authors, style, content –Personal Knowledge (Text-to-Self) Aids empathy

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 1. Activating Schema (prior knowledge) con’t Good readers recognize when they have inadequate schema to understand reading and know how to build schema to get the information they need

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 2. Asking Questions Good readers spontaneously generate questions before, during, and after reading Ask questions for different purposes –Clarify meaning –Make predictions –Determine author’s style or format –Locate a specific answer in text –Consider rhetorical questions inspired by the text

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 2. Asking Questions (con’t) Use questions to focus their attention on important information Good readers are aware that other readers’ questions may inspire new questions for them!

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 3.Drawing Inferences (“reading between the lines”) Good readers use their schema and the text to… –Draw interesting conclusions or make unique interpretations about the text. –Make predictions, confirm predictions, and test developing meaning as they read. –Answer questions. –Create interpretations to enrich and deepen experience with the text.

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 4.Using Sensory and Emotional Images Good readers create sensory images before, during, and after reading. These include… –Visual images –Auditory images –Tactile images –Taste images –Smell images –EMOTIONAL connections rooted in schema

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 4.Using Sensory and Emotional Images (con’t) Use images to draw inferences Use images from reading in our writing Use images to immerse themselves in their reading to engage in the text more deeply and make reading memorable (Children’s books!) Adapt images while sharing images with others Adapt images to incorporate new information as they read

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 5. Determining What is Important in Text Good readers… –Identify key ideas or themes as they read –Distinguish important from unimportant information in relation to key ideas or themes –Can distinguish important information at the word, sentence, and text level –Use what’s important to prioritize those elements in long-term memory and summarize text for others

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 6. Synthesizing Good readers can see how text elements are organized or “fit together.” Retell in order to better understand what they have read Capitalize on opportunities to share and recommend books/texts Extent synthesis of the literal meaning to the inferential level Synthesize to understand more deeply

Metacognitive Reading Strategies (What the voice should say as you read) 7.Analyzing and Critiquing Good readers… –Identify literary devices (irony, figurative language, symbols, imagery, foreshadowing, theme). –Recognize creativity and skill of language. –Identify the significance of text elements –Evaluate text structure, and if that organizational structure is effective. –Evaluate speaker (Biased? Credible?) –Evaluate content (Thorough? Reliable? Source?)

Why Does it Matter? The sooner you become metacognitive about your reading, the better reader you will become. You will be amazed at how much better you’ll remember and understand what you read, and therefore, enjoy it more! You can apply these to any reading for any class!

The End! …or is it?