Transcript Important Reading Strategies - ADLC's English 20

Dig In! It’s time to read!
“TO READ WITHOUT REFLECTING IS LIKE
EATING WITHOUT DIGESTING.”
~ EDMUND BURKE ~
Quoted from: http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/readingquotes.htm, Retrieved February 19, 2010
Reading is like eating? Awesome!
Re-read the opening quote, by
Edmund Burke:
“To read without reflecting is
like eating without digesting.”
Burke is using an analogy to
compare these two ideas. How
useful is eating food if it is not
digested by your body?
Sure, you can enjoy the
immediate taste of the food,
but your body won’t benefit
from the nutrition that food
provides.
©2010 Thinkstock
Wait a second… How is eating like reading again?
Like eating, we may not
always like what we read or
see (or have to eat!), but
that doesn’t mean that we
still can’t benefit from the
experience.
If you ‘digest’ what you read
and what you see, the ideas
will stay with you. You will
grow because of what you
read.
©2010 Thinkstock
Sometimes I have a hard time reading…
 Students who are good
readers have certain
habits in common.
 Good readers:
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engage in the text
monitor their
understanding, and
explore and share their
experience
©2010 Thinkstock
Engage with your Reading

Good readers:

Set a purpose for their reading


Ask questions and they try to find the
answers while they read

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“I wonder if this means that a change is
ahead for the character? I think he might
struggle later on with this choice.”
Try to make personal connections with
what they read


“Why did the author say this? What does
he mean by that?
Make predictions while they read, then
follow through to see if those predictions
come true

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E.g. “I am reading this because I need to
find out…”
“I know exactly how it feels to have
someone else eat the last pizza pop in my
freezer! Poor guy!”
Visualize what they read, even drawing
diagrams or mind maps to help organize
important details
http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/blaine/index_files/Traits%20of%20Good%20and%20Struggling%20Readers.pdf
©2010 Thinkstock
Monitor Your Understanding
 Good readers frequently
check to see if they are
understanding what they
read. If they struggle (and
all readers face texts they
don’t understand, by the
way!), good readers will:
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Record observations while
they read
Slow down their reading
pace
Re-read difficult sections
Look up difficult words, and
try to understand them as
they are used in the text
Ask questions
http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/blaine/index_files/Traits%20of%20Good%20and%20Struggling%20Readers.pdf
©2010 Thinkstock
Explore and Share
 It is important to try to
find and connect to the
meaning in the text.
Sound scary?
 By asking a simple
question throughout
your reading process,
you can quickly get to the
big ideas in the text.
 You’ve heard this
question before…
The So What? Thinking Strategy
Text
Bring the
Thinking
Back to the
Text
How does This
Thinking Help
You Better
Understand
the Text?
Connect
to text
"So
What?"
Thinking
Strategy
More
Thinking
Strategies
So
What?
Tovani, C. (2004). Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Stenhouse Publishers, Portland. P. 17
The So What? Thinking Strategy
 Start with the text:

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

Why am I reading this
text?
What kind of text is it: an
essay, article, poem, or
billboard?
What is the title?
What ideas do the pictures
and captions suggest to
me?
©2010 Thinkstock
The So What? Thinking Strategy
 Connect with the text
and ask yourself:



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Have I read texts like this
one before?
Am I familiar with the
time and place it is set?
What do I know about the
people involved? Do they
remind me of anyone?
What is my opinion of the
main idea?
©2010 Thinkstock
The So What? Thinking Strategy
 More Thinking
Strategies:

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
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
Ask a question
Draw a conclusion
Visualize
Sift and Sort
Recognize confusion
 The assignments you will
do in this course will help
you develop these skills.
Tovani, C. (2004). Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Stenhouse Publishers, Portland. P. 17
©2010 Thinkstock
The So What? Thinking Strategy
 Now it’s important to
consider the relevance of
what you’re reading. It
will help you grow in
your reading.
 Ask yourself: How does
this thinking help me
better understand the
text?
 Sometimes a double
entry journal can be
helpful in this process.
1Tovani,
1Connection
2Reacting
So What?
Reflecting
C. (2004). Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Stenhouse Publishers, Portland. P. 14
Writing a Double Entry Journal
In a double-entry
journal, you will make
two columns for
“before” and “after”
observations
• The “reacting”
column is where you
will put your reactions
to the text, whether
they are comments,
observations or
questions. You would
do this as you read
through a piece of text.
Reacting
Reflecting
Why is the character so
I think she realized people
worried about an old man? can’t judge others by how they
He seems harmless enough. look. Just because people look
or act one way on the outside,
doesn’t mean they are entirely
different inside. I think the
character is worried she might
have put her daughter in
danger because of her own
poor judgment.
• The “reflecting” column is where you would revisit these
questions after you had read the piece of text and formed
all your “reactions”. Using what you’ve learned from
reading, you would then answer your “questions” or clarify
your initial findings with new knowledge.
Now What?
• When you are given readings like a short story, poem, novel, or other
pieces of text for school, you are given these readings so that you will take
something away from them.
• By interacting with the text, whether it be taking notes, forming questions,
writing double entry journals, making predictions or using sticky notes for
points of interest, you are ensuring that crucial learning or “digestion”
process is taking place.
• It is more meaningful and helpful in the end to form a genuine
understanding about a text then it is to simply memorize what is going on.
• These methods and strategies are only a few suggestions to try to help
you interact, engage, and digest texts. If you would like more
suggestions, talk to your teacher!
Bon Appétit!
All readers need find
strategies that work for
them, because everyone
struggles with reading;
whether we grapple
with words themselves,
or we struggle to see
new perspectives.
As you grow, it is most
important that
maintain an active
interest in trying new
foods… and texts!