Active Reading Strategies—

Strategies—Narrative Selections
Making Tracks-using post it notes to track thoughts, predictions, and ideas as you read
Silent Literature Circle-First read chapter/selection, then pose a question to the
group, students respond in writing, trade papers and read other student response, then respond
to THEIR writing
Open Mind-
Mind Take on character’s perspective. Writing journal response or write words, symbols
and pictures what they are thinking. Or print out of body outline “What is character feeling,
thinking, doing, going”
Vocabulary Illustration-
Illustration-Illustrate and define vocabulary words
Visualization-
Visualization-Draw one picture to illustrate what the scene or chapter was about. Visualize
“Still Pictures”: like a photo album—Draw a picture and write about it. “At the movies”: readers
link pictures and characters moving through mind like a movie and “Experience the Story”:
ultimate level of visualizing, actually feeling like you the reader are in the story WITH the
characters
Post-
Post-It Note Coding Strategies (or INSERT in spiral)-
spiral)-Use coding
strategies bookmark as you read to code new and interesting information,
Venn Diagram-
Diagram-You vs. character
Sequence-
Sequence- Write story sequence for another student to paste in the correct order
Sketch to Stretch-
Stretch- 4 quadrants of paper, one person reads selection aloud, one person
sketches action by action, one person summarizes in bullet form, last person writes important
vocabulary words
Prediction Check Point-
Point-Put ideas together on chart paper about predictions up until
this point, have your predictions been correct
Interrogation
Interrogation Game-
Game- one student pretends to be the character, the rest of the class
interrogates and asks questions to that character—he/she must answer as that character
3 x 5 Card (like visualization)-
visualization)- Summary one side, picture of a scene from the
chapter on the other
Time Machine-
Machine-Write a scene where the character travels out of the book and into your
home. What would happen?
Dear Classmate-
Classmate-Interactive Journal between 2 students, responding and relating to
the text/chapters. Like a book discussion but all done in writing
Probable Passage- (in spiral) – select important vocab words, on blank story map predict
the probable passages that could be found in the story based on the vocab given. Share
probable passage to class. Read story to see if it matches at all
Predict-
Predict-O-Gram-
Gram- (in spiral) introduce vocab from story/chapter, then fill out the
prediction guide of narrative elements by using the given vocabulary
Making Connections-Text to Self, Text to Text, Text to World connections
VIP (Very Important Points)-
Points)- (in spiral) place 6-7 post it note strips as they
read a selection to put at the most important points, choosing selectively. Then organize details
in order from most important to least important. Compare with one another and explain their
choices. Write out your final summary.
DRTA (Directed Reading-
Reading-Thinking Activity)-
Activity (in spiral) making predictions—
see black line master
Concept Squares-
Squares-(in spiral)- see black line – better for expository
Read-
Read-Cover-
Cover-Remember-
Remember-Retell
Trio Reading
Paired Questioning-
Questioning- (in spiral)-in pairs, read selection with stopping points known ahead
of time. At stopping point, students take turns asking questions about what was just read to
their partner. Must foster true thinking and reflective answers…not ones that would produce
a one word answer
Character Map
Reading Response Logs – respond to text read with a friend but only through
writing. Write thoughts, questions, predictions to your classmate.
Quickwrites-
Quickwrites- (in spiral) –Give a prompt, give five minutes to write anything that comes to
mind about that topic, share in small group or with class. If used after reading, summarize
and respond to the reading in your writing.
Word Theatre-
Theatre- (in spiral) – usually done in pairs students act out words – brainstorming
how it fits into the plot. First brainstorm, then act out the word in front of partner/class.
Guess the word
Paired Summarizing-
Summarizing- (in spiral) –Students get with partner, Read a text and
summarize it in writing. Exchange summary with a partner, read their summary. Write a
SUMMARY of their SUMMARY. Then pairs sit down and compare the summaries.
Save the last word for me-
me- (in spiral) –fill out both sides of an index card. Side 1:
write a quote, phrase, idea, opinion, word, etc to stimulate a discussion. Include page number.
Side 2: write personal reaction and response to the chosen information. Gather in small groups
to discuss the cards. 1. One student reads side 1 of the card. 2. Each student responds to the
information. 3. After each student has shared, the card’s creator gets the last word on the
subject by sharing side 2 of his/her card. Do this until everyone has had the last word on their
card.
Diamante Poetry-
Poetry- (in spiral) – prewriting sheet. Share with classmates. See blackline
masters for prewriting sheet and poem page
Cinquain Poetry-
Poetry- (in spiral) – after reading fill out the cinquain—see spiral for blackline
masters
Bio-
Bio-Pyramid Poetry- (in spiral) – after reading text, fill out bio pyramid about one
character—share with class. See spiral for blackline masters
Story Pyramid-
Pyramid- (in spiral) – like the bio pyramid but it summarizes the narrative
elements of the story in a poetry format
Cite
Cite Evidence-
Evidence- practice citing evidence when answering questions
QAR-
QAR- come up with QAR questions to ask other students about the reading
Character Traits w/siting evidence-
evidence- Create a T chart and model how to identify
character traits and then on the other side use post it notes to identify evidence to support
that trait
Lift the Line-
Line- lift a line from the passage and then reflect on it or change it—create
their own writing to it—change the ending. Ask them to find a spot where they found a detail
that they had missed in their first read and rewrite it. Write about how that detail helps them
derive more meaning from the story.
Finding the Spark- keep track of questions, tricky spots, favorite parts, connections,
words to look up, answer to earlier question, clues, thoughts, etc, After jotting down notes,
make three piles. 1) Notes that do not make sense or seem BLAH, 2) notes that may have
questions or ideas to save for later 3) those that spark thinking right now. Throw pile 1 away,
keep pile 2 and replace in book for further questions, pile 3 students will write about
Fab Five-
Five begin writing entry with five sentences about what they read in a book (sequence
of events, details, summary, etc). Only allowed 5 sentences to help them understand what
they read. Or when talking to kids about what they wrote, they will want to just reread their
piece. Ask them to “Give you a Fab Five on their writing” to get a gist of it.
Summarizing Questions or Somebody, Wanted, But, So-to help write a
summary rather than retelling ask kids to answer questions 1.) Who? 2.) Wants what? 3.)
But? (what happens) 4.) So? (What does the character do?) 5.) Then? (how does it end?)
this helps them pick out details they need to write a summary
Lift a Prompt-begin with discussion about book the class is reading together. Take notes
about what kids say, including questions they have, connections, inferences, etc. Then think
about how to push their thinking further. Create open ended questions to lead them into
further reflection.