Pre, During, Post Reading StrategiesToolkit

Prepared for Literacy WorkshopOctober 9, 2007

Special Thanks to Terri Glueck and Katy (arthey, secondary literacytrainers, for much of the materials.

Coding Text

Coding Text is a during reading strategy that helps students become awareof and to record mental responses to their reading. If students are notaccustomed to thinking actively as they read, they need to make consciousefforts to do so, but not so intrusively as to completely interrupt the 110w oftheir reading. Symbuls help students remember a strategy. notice when theirthinking has followed it, and then very briefly note the spot in the text wherethat thinking occurred. Ifwc want students to think morc deeply as theyread, we need to provide explicit mechanisms for them to do this.

Procedures:1. Give students the set ofcodes you want them to use. You can use the

ones provided here which are labeled I.N.S.E.R.T. (InteractiveNotation System for Effective Reading and Thinking) or you canmake up your own.

2. De sure and introduce just one or two symbols at a time anddemonstrate for students when and how they might use them.

3. Have students read the assigned piece of text and usc the codingsystem as they are reading.

4. Students could add briefcomments or phrases explaining theirthinking to the margins of the article or on the post-it note.

5. Ask students to shared their coded responses later, when they discussor work with the reading.

Double Entry Journals

Double entry journab are a during reading slralegy that helps students showwhat they are thinking as they read an assigned text. These journals givestudents a powerful way to take notes and respond at the same time. Doubleentry journals can be constructed in a variety of ways, but the essence isalways the same; left hand side (a quote or a summary) is lifted directly fromthe text; the right hand side is reader's reaction to words copied from text.The reaction might be a connection, a question, an emotion, or even a visualsymbol to help them remember something.

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Direct quote [rom text or summary Student' s reaction to the selectedof passage read. Include page piece of text. Sec idcas below fornumber. stem starters.

---------_.---------

Reaction StartersThis reminds me of..._.r wonder. .....r infer. ....This is important because .r am confused hecause .r will help myself by .I think this means ....The picture in my head looks like .....

More Content Area Double Entry Diary Prompts:*List interesting facts or details Reaction: What is the author's message?*Confusing part in text Reaction: What I did to try to get unstuck_*Term/vocabulary word Reaction: What r know about the termcausing confusion

1.

3-2-1

This is a post reading technique Lhal can be used in a variety of ways. Youcan use it in oral, artistic, or written fOlIDS. Often it is used as a [mm of exitcard or entry card in a classroom. IL is a short individual summary straLegy.

Procedures:I. Have students number 3, 3, and 1 down the left side of their paper

leaving a couple oflines between each number. You could use halfsheets of paper or index cards.

2. Give (orally and on the board) prompts for each number. Ask studenLsto write three of something, two of something, and then one ofsomething. For example students might write three Lhings tbcylearned, two things Lhey have questions about, and one Lhing they willapply in a different classroom. Prompts will vary with the content ofthe lesson and your instructional goals.

Example:3 -IdentitY three dillercnces beLween acids and bases.

2 - List two uses of acids and t\VO uscs of bases.

1 - State one reason knowledge or acids and bases is important.

Give One - Get One

Give One -- Get One is a interactive way for students to tap into their priorknowledge as well as build background knowledge for a text or unit. !l issimilar to a brainstorm session but has more of a communication twist builtinto it.!l is also a take-off on K-W-L but not as teacher directed.

Procedures:

1. Generate a topic from the text and put it on the board or on yourhandout. Some examples are:*Reasons to exercise·Keywords for studying space*Favorite idioms, metaphors, simi1l's*What do we know about gravity

2. Have students fold a piece ofpaper in half horizontally and number 1­4 above the fold and 5-8 below the fold or use the handout provided.

J. Have students \\Tite down ideas related to the topic you gave.

4. Have students move around the room and exchange their ideas for atleast three ditTerent ideas Ii-om others which go on lines 5-8. Theyneed La get the student's name for each corresponding idea and writeit in the from column.

5. After several minutes have the students regroup and share with theclass the ideas they heard from other students.

6. Discuss all the responses and then introduce the texl or lesson.

Anticipation Guide

Anticipation guides are a pre-reading strategy that helps students activatetheir prior knowledge, make predictions, and cotmect to ideas. The bestanticipation statements aren't about factual recall, but invite students to thiokabout big ideas in the reading or lesson.

Procedures:I. Identity major concepts in the reading or lesson.

2. Create 3 - 5 statements that question certain notions, beliefs, oropinions that may challenge what students already know. Studentsshould mark each statement as agree or disagree rather than as trueor false. You don't wart them considering the truth of thestatement; instead, you want them exploring what they believeabout the statement. There should not be a right or wrong answer.

3. Hand out the guide and briefly explain the statements. Havestudents mark their responses of agree or disagree.

4. Have students give reasons for their opinions by answering the"Why?" question on the leH under each statement. It is up to youwhether you want the students to share their opinions or read thetext, watch the movie, hear the lesson etc.

5. After reading and follow-up activities, have students mark the"After Reading colunUl and fill in they why section.

6. Conduct a discussion comparing the before and aHer results.Discussion should refer to evidence in the text and should coverstudents' reasons for changes in their before and after answers.

Cube It

This is a post-reading strategy that gets the students actively reviewing andtalking about the text selection tbey have finished reading. You could usethis strategy in many different ways by changing the questions/activitiesaround. You want to try to have six levels of activities for the students toparticipate in. This strategy can be used as a way to review a unit or watch avideo.

Procedures:

I. Students are in groups and each group has a die with a Set ofinstructions.

2. Students take turns rolling the cube and participating in the activity. Iftime students can roll more than once.

3. Here is a sample of what can be done:

I. Describe it aloud. (Comprehension)

2. Sketch it. (Application)

3. List words to tell about it. (Knowledge)

4. Tell us what is good and bad about it. (Evaluation)

5. Compare it. ..What is it like? (Analysis)What it is different from?

6. Connect it ... What does it make you (Synthesis)think of? Why?

Post-It Response Notes

This is a during reading strategy that engages students to actively think asthey are reading selected passages of text. Students use small sticky notes towrite comments about parts of the text that elicit some type of response fromthem. They can then refer to these notes when discussing the text in class orfor doing other work after they've read. This strategy helps students becomeaware of information and their responses to it without taking lengthy notes.You can also have students mark particular concepts, facts, or thinkingstrategies that you have emphasized and want them to Jook for in theirreading.

Procedures:

I. When students first use this strategy give a few simple directionsabout what they should watch for. Example: As you read find twoplaces in the text that affirm what you already know about this topicand explain how you knew this. Also frnd one place in the text thatconfuses you and write a question on your post-it note.

2. Students like using multiple colors ofnotes to distinguish betweenvarious kinds of responses. Examples:

Yellow - Write a response that shows surprise by what you read.Green - Write a question about a part that confused you.Purple - Write a response to a part that you disagreed with.Pink - Write a response to something you read that you already knew.

3. [fyou need to assess this work, ask students to place the page numberwhere they'd attached it on each note, and to then transfer the notes toa separate sheet of paper with their name on it.

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Anchor Lines

Anchor Lines is a pre-reading strategy that helps students to access prior knowledge,make predictions and create expectations about the texl. This strategy is especiallyhelpful when the ideas or the language is complex.

Procedure:

1. The teacher chooses four to six lines from the text. These quotes may be centralideas, ideas that support the theme or point, provocative slatements, or opinions.These quotes are arranged on the page in the order they appear in the text. Theteacher leaves space between (he quotes so that students have room to write.

2. Before handing ant the text, students arc given the Anchor Lines sheet, and askedto work individually to do (he following:

• Line one: explain what the quote means.• Lines two through four: explain what each quote means

and explain how it might connect with the ideas in theprevious quote(s).

3. Students now meet in pairs or small groups to talk about what they have written,and to make predictions about the text. The teacher may then ask selectedstudents to share their predictions with the whole class, or have them write thosepredictions on the board.

• Ibe teacher may ask students to revisit the anchor lines after they have read the text.Students use the back of the sheet to commenl on their own explanations and predictions,and articulate how the actual text differed (or was similar to) what they wrote,

INSTRUCTIONS FOR A WRITE AROUND(Suggestion: turn these steps into overhead transparencies)

Form a group of fou r.Each person have a large blank piece of paper ready to use.Each member put their initials in the upper left-hand margin.

EXPLAIN the TWO RULES:1. Use all the time for writing.2. Don't talk when passing.

WRITE FOR ONE MINUTE: Write yonr thoughts, reactions, questions, or rcelingsabout the article. (You may expand this with topic-specific suggestions if needed.Keep time not by exact minutes and seconds, but by walking and watching kidswrite. When most students have filled 1/4 of a page, it is time to pass).

PASS the paper when asked to do so. Here teacher reiterates instructions by saying:

READ all the entries on the page, then WRITE for one minute. You can offer acomment on any or all ortbe above eutries, ask questions, or raise a new topic.Keep the conversation going! (You need to allow a little more time with each entrybecause kids will have more to read with each successive exchange).

PASS at the sigual.

RINSE And REPEAT.(4 times, total)

READ OVER: The paper you started and ended up witb.

DISCUSS IN WRITE-AROUND GROUPS: Continue the conversatioll out 10lld forabout 2 minutes.

SHARE HIGHLIGHTS OR KEY IDEAS WITH WHOLE CLASS: Now use kids'writc-around idcas to cxtcnd and deepen their thinking about thc subject. Possibleprompts: What was one highlight of your written conversation? A topic thatsparked lively discussion? Something people disagreed about?

DEBRIEF: discuss the process. How could we make it work bettcr next time?

Word Sorts

Word sorts can be used as a pre-reading or post-reading activity. Beforereading, a word sort can be an activation strategy to encourage students tomake predictive connections among the words. After reading, word sortsallow students to claritY and extend their understanding of key concepts andvocabulary.

The object ofa word sort is to group words into categories according tosome shared feature. Word sorts can be conducted two ways: closed andopen.

• A Closed Word Sort: the teacher predetem,ines the categories for thestudents and thus establishes the criterion that the words must have incommon in order to fonn a group or category.

'An Open Word Sort: there are no predetermined categories and thusno shared characteristics have been decided in advance. Students areasked to decide for themselves what the words have in common and togroup them accordingly.

Procedures:I. IdentitY key words from the unit of study. Make sure you have some

words that you think students will know.

2. Students can work individually or in groups. It is a good strategy rorgroup work as the students can have dialogue about the meanings ofwords and why certain words should be clustered together.

3. Invite the students to sort them into logical arrangements of two ormore. In an open word sort the students need to label each category ofwords.

4. Once the students have arranged their words into groups you caninvite them to share the word sorts with the rest ofthe elass and havethem explain why they grouped words in the manner that they did.

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Tea Party

Tea Party is a pre-rcading strategy that gives students a chance to look atparts of the text before thcy actually read it. This strategy encourages activeparticipation and gives evelyonc a chance to get up and move around as theytalk about lines from the text. Students have a chance to make predictions,make inferences, compare and contrast, practice sequencing, and draw ontheir prior experiences.

Procedures:1. Decide what phrases, sentences, or single words you want to place on

index cards or strips of paper. Try to select halfas many phrases asstudents in the class. Choose some phrases that might be interpreted inmultiple ways.

2. Don't paraphrase the text- You can omit words if you Ileed to shortena phrase, but don't change the words.

3. Give one card to each student. Ask students to get up and movearound sharing their card with as many students as possible. It isimportant that thc students understand they not only share their cardbut listcn to the other person's card and discuss how the cards mightbc related.

4. Have students get in groups of 4 or 5 to discuss what they presume isgoing to happcn in the text. They will havc their phrases in front ofthem and hopefully remember what some orthe other phrases said.

5. Ask students to record their predictions by writing a "We think thatthis selection is about. ..." paragraph. They could actually insert theirphrases into this paragraph.

6. Have groups share their "We think" paragraphs making sure theyexplain how they reached their predictions.

7. Rcad the selection.

8. Discuss the predictions. This isn't about being right or wrong it isabout seeing relationships between words.

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Save the Last Word for Me

Save the Last Word for Me is a discussion strategy that can be used duringreading or after reading a selected text. It works well when students arekeeping double entry diaries or some other during reading strategy wherethey have copied or marked pieces of text they lelt were important. This is astructured form of group discussion that helps students see how the meaningof any piece is recreated by the reader and can take different points of view.As students share their selected passages and hear others' responses, theyhear similarities and differences in one another's thinking. The author of thecard gets the final word by stating why that passage was picked aftcreveryone else has shared their viewpoints.

Procedures:I. Students earmark important passages in the selected text. This can be

done in the form of a double entry diary, with post-its, marking thetext, or keeping note cards and writing down key quotes. To helpeveryone locate the passage being discussed, students should indicateby eaeh quote the page number.

2. Have students star the quotes that are most important to them. If theyhave marked a couple of quotes thcy can have more to choose from ifsomeone else selects one of their passages.

3. Students should write down why those quotes were selected. Theyneed to explain what kind of reaction they had reading that passage,did it bring up some other kind of connection or a strong feeling. Didthey pick it because it caused a question in their reading or because itwas a key sentence to the understanding of the text.

4. In a small group students takc tunIs reading their important quote andin a circle each student responds to the quote. They could make theirown connection to it, mention they also had selected that quote, share·a question they had when reading that passage. The author of the cardgets the last word by saying why this quote had been selected, perhapssharing a new vjew than what others had said or now maybe changingtheir original interpretation of the line after listening to the group.

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Mindstreaming

Purpose: Mindstreaming is a strategy that helps students to artieulate what they know.It can be used as a pre-reading activity to help students activate prior knowledge, or as apost-reading strategy to clarify, question and help students to retain what they havelearned.

Process: Students work in partners for this timed activity. The teacher assigns a topic,and then one student begins listing! describing everything he or she can recall about thattopic. He or she may use notes, textbooks, or other assignments to stimulate this recal1.The listening student cannot add anything to the discussion or answer any questions yet.He or she is only supposed to listen and encourage the student who is mindslreaming.The length of time for the first student's mindstreaming depends upon the topie, but it isgenerally 1-3 minutes.

When the fust student is fmished the second student is then asked to mindstream, eitherabout the same topic, in wrueh case he or she is given half the amount of time the fuststudent was given, or about a related topic, in which case he or she is given an equalamount of time.

Studentsmay then be asked to share questions with the whole cla<;s, or to make a list ofkey information that they gathered from their mindstreaming.

I?,

I.N.S.E.R.T."'"Interactive Notalion System for Effective Reading and Thinking

.~fa section ofthe text:

Confirms what you thought

Contradicts what you thought

7

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1•

Raises a question

Confuses you

Seems important

Is new or interesting

iIa wordGets repeatedSeems importantIs unknown

Box it:

Also:Jot down your reactions in the margins:words, phrases, questions, dood les.

Double-Entry Journal

iQ'IOtc from thctcxt ~-,__M): reaction

---- ------------ - - - ----------+---------

----------------------- ------

3-2-1

Three things you were reminded of or learned today:

Two questions that arc now formulating in your head:

One stratcgy you will try in your classroom:

3-2-1

Three things you wcre reminded of or learned today:

Two questions that arc now formulating in your head:

One strategy you will try in your classroom:

I'; b

Give One - Get One

Why are strategies needed when students are asked to read a piece of text?

Ideas I will give:

1. _

2. _

3.. _

4. _

Ideas I got:

5.__

6 ._... _

7. _

8. _

-------

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Prom

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Auticipation Guide

Read each statement, and indication whether you agree or disagrcc by pUlling either a +(agree) or a - (disagree).

____ It is important 10 us~ supplementary reading materials in order to leach s(ud~nts

your subj~l:l.

___ It is easy to find supplementary reading materials to complement my subject.

It is possible to use a variety of texts simullaneously to teach the same concept.....--

It is just as easy to create a lesson around multiple lexls a<; it is to create a lessonusing only one text.

____ There is a two lo thrce year reading range ill the typical Hliddle school or highschool da:'isroom.

Four Square Graphic OrganizerWrite the strategy you used in the circle. Then in the top left square describe what you did; in the top right square explain what went well; the the

bottom left square describe student feedback or student outcomes; and in the bottom right square explain what you would do ddfferently

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One thing :,till "going round" ill my head is ....

('''L~ idea that "squares" ,.,.iLII Illy thinking is .....

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Strategy Workshop Feedhaek Form

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Geometric Clasun:

What did you like most about thc sessions?

What is one suggestion you could give us to improve these sessions for llt:xt year?

What would you likt: to se0 us oJTt:r in tenns of literacy ·opportunities for next year?

Qut:stions or ComOlt:nls;