Reading Education

This is the last stage of reading and it has to do with using translational, organizational, or activities filled with repetition to support the knowledge that has been garnered.

The main objective of the post-reading stage is to check for correct comprehension of the text. Often, students are made to read a selected part of the text but don’t get an opportunity to discuss what they have read afterward. This is where teachers can help. They can use various post-reading strategies to let the students derive meaning from what they have read and deal with any misunderstandings that they may have come across. For instance, some strategies teachers can use are paragraph frames, annotations, graphic organizers, KWL charts, recitations, and sequencing charts.

Paragraph frames

These are templates of paragraphs that students have to complete. They can help in expository and narrative writing connected to the text and boost oral and written language skills.

Annotations

They help students understand what has happened in a text after reading it. As students annotate, they should identify the author’s main points, core areas of focus, shifts in the text’s perspective or message, and their own thoughts.

Graphic organizers

Depending on what reading comprehension level they want to teach, teachers can choose a graphic organizer and ask students to complete it. This could include understanding the text’s core theme, idea, or cause and effect. After they have finished reading the text, students may be asked to either work alone or with a partner to complete the organizer.

KWL charts

These charts have three columns. The one marked as K is intended for things the students already know. The column labeled W refers to what the students want to know, while the one marked as L is for what they have learned. Students should fill in the K and W columns before reading, while column L should be completed after reading to check what key points they remember from the text they have just read.

Recitations

This involves asking students to recite or retell what they have learned or what the story was about. If a student struggles with this task, teachers can help by asking specific what, who, where, when, how, and why questions. Answering these questions will let students focus their responses and provide a guide for reciting what they have read.

Sequencing charts

These are a form of graphic organizers that are ideal for fictional texts. For instance, they can have boxes in which students explain the text’s characters, setting, problem, and solution.

This is the second stage of reading that has to do with the dialogue of a reader with the written text. At this stage, students are able to gather information, confirm predictions, and organize information.

Teachers can use various activities at this stage to help their students focus on different aspects of the text and understand it better. The number of during-reading stage activities they can conduct in the classroom will depend on how creative the teachers are. From choosing activities based on traditional types of assessment to using some technology-based ones or even mixing and matching these, teachers can make the during-reading stage more fun, exciting, and engaging for their students.

Here are some effective during-reading stage activities that teachers can use in their classrooms:

1. Identify topic sentences: Typically, each paragraph includes a topic sentence that helps identify its main idea or the author’s primary message.
2. General vs. specific ideas: While general ideas usually convey the main point or key idea of a text, specific ideas provide proof to explain the general or key idea further and establish it to be valid. Teachers can ask students to differentiate between general and specific ideas.
3. Spot the connectors: Teachers can guide their students to identify different types of connectors or linking words to help them notice how they tie ideas within the text.
4. Check predictions: Assumptions or predictions about the text made during the pre-reading stage can be checked at the during-reading stage to find if they are confirmed.
5. Skim the text: Skimming refers to looking for and locating specific information within a text. Teachers can encourage students to skim the text and find the main idea, which will help them become flexible and proficient readers
6. Answer questions – both literal and inferential: Literal questions are based on what the text states, while inferential questions need students to use the text as a starting point and then delve deeper to answer them.
7. Coding text: This involves teaching students how to use margin marking so they can put a question mark beside a statement they don’t understand or an exclamation next to a phrase, word, or sentence that surprised them.
8. Inference: This is a listening activity where students infer the meaning of new words using the text’s perspective.
9. Peer conversation: This is where teachers encourage student-to-student conversations. After the students have read a section of the text or a few paragraphs, they are asked to discuss the contents with a classmate and listen to what the other has to say.

This describes a reader’s capability to check, evaluate and ask important questions concerning the truth of an author’s work, as well as how strong the arguments or points of view in the author’s book are. Thus, critical reading is a more active mode of reading where the reader forms a deeper and more complex engagement with the text.

There are some key differences between merely reading a text and reading it critically. For one, reading aims to get a basic grasp of the text, while critical reading involves forming judgment about how the text works. Second, simple reading involves just understanding and absorbing the text, while critical reading additionally involves interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating it. 

Third, in the case of reading, the focus is on what the text says, whereas critical reading emphasizes what the text means and does. Fourth, readers go with the text while reading it as they take everything that’s mentioned to be right. However, in critical reading, readers go against the text to question its arguments and assumptions, in addition to interpreting its meaning in context.

To read critically, students should be able to self-reflect. They should identify the assumptions, experiences, perspectives, and knowledge they bring to the text, the biases they have, and question if they can keep an open mind and take into account other (often conflicting) points of view.

Critical reading also needs that students read to understand. For this, students should check the text and its context by answering questions like who the author is, when and where the text was written, who the publisher is, and what type of text it is. Finding what the topic and key ideas are, in addition to resolving confusion by looking up a dictionary or using other reference materials to understand unfamiliar words and phrases, are also part of critical reading.  

When reading critically, students can keep a journal to regularly record their responses and thoughts that they may reflect upon or consult later. This habit of reading and writing in conjunction will help improve both skills.

Critical reading involves critical thinking. This means students should analyze, interpret, and assess the text. Each of these processes will let them interact with the text in different ways, including taking notes, highlighting the vital points and examples, brainstorming, evaluating answers to their questions, describing features of the text or argument, outlining, opposing the evidence or ideas presented, reflecting on their own thoughts and reading, etc.

These are a listing of the keywords for guiding the order of written stories by generalization, listening, comparing or contrasting, question and answer, or sequencing. Thanks to the order, it is easier for students to explain their understanding of the structure of the narrative. Thus, by helping students analyze and create stories, story frames can enhance their vital literacy skills.

Story frames often use fun, dynamic, and highly visual ways, including icons, storyboards, and quick drawings that make it easy for students to comprehend the narrative structure. With their teacher’s guidance, students will learn how to use the knowledge of story structure to develop basic literacy skills – from reading comprehension and oral language to writing. This, in turn, will enable students to write their own unique tales or personal stories in different genres. 

Typically, teachers should use dozens of different fiction and nonfiction books as vibrant examples when teaching their students various story elements via story frames. Any teacher can start using story frames as they act as effective and accessible pathways to structured literacy. When story frames are used year after year, they will strengthen the students’ reading, comprehension, analysis, and creative skills, among others, and instill an enduring love of reading and writing.

Teachers who are still in a dilemma about using story frames can consider these benefits that the move will bring their way:

•         Initiate a fun and engaging way to structured literacy
•         Build core literacy skills, including vocabulary, oral language, syntax, grammar, narrative development, phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and expository writing
•         Reinforce the existing curriculum with flexible learning activities and lesson plans aligned with the science of reading
•         Teach narrative structure effectively to both advanced and struggling learners
•         Teach students in any set-up, with practical tips for virtual instruction and teletherapy
•         Enhance executive function skills by making the writing process meaningful, comprehensible, and manageable

Story frames are a great way to scaffold instruction and build students’ confidence in writing, especially in writing genres and tasks with which they have nil to little prior experience. Such frames provide students with a structure on which they can base their ideas. They also help students incorporate vocabulary they have newly learned to create more sophisticated sentences and paragraphs. Story frames are an effective way of differentiating tasks to meet the requirements of all students. Thus, they can challenge and stretch more competent writers and even support struggling writers.

This is the deep study, analysis, explanation, and reflection on a set of related stories or novel. But it’s not merely teaching a book. Novel study doesn’t involve quizzing students about the contents on page 40 or 52. It doesn’t need students to simply regurgitate the text. Instead, it’s much more than that. Its aim is to engage students in high-quality literature and help develop their reading, thinking, and comprehension skills. Compared to the typical reading of a textbook, novel study lets students practice and fine-tune their reading, comprehension, and analysis skills in a much more engaging way.

Using novel study, teachers can build a love of reading in their students. When done in a group, it paves the way for shared experiences that creates connections and helps build communities.

The following steps can help teachers plan a novel study:

•         Decide the timeframe: Based on their district and school, teachers need to decide on the timeframe they wish to assign to a novel study. For instance, if it’s an alternative school where no homework is assigned, all the work will need to be finished in class. This means the teacher will need to set aside a longer duration for a novel study.
•         Mark vital dates: Teachers should know the exact number of teaching days they will have with their students. For this, they should mark the holidays, in-service days, half-days, and even days they know they’ll be absent due to prior commitments.
•         Identify days to “teach light”: Some particular days, such as the day before summer or winter break, aren’t ideal for introducing a complex novel or discussing intricate details. Teachers should plan their novel study while keeping these days in mind.
•         Have a buffer week: If the novel study is planned to be completed within six weeks, teachers should leave the last week as a “buffer” week. That’s because unexpected or unplanned things will invariably crop up and eat into their teaching time, like a snow day, a sudden meeting with the school counselors, or a last-minute assembly that they must attend.

A novel study introduces new vocabulary to students and encourages fluent word decoding and expressions, in addition to quick comprehension and processing that help them focus on character analysis and plot development. Be it study activities for character analysis, exploring plot development, or predicting how the character graph of key players will change, a novel study offers the students food for thought. Thus, it motivates students to read and enjoy the process.

These are sets of students that regularly gather to dissect a book they have read. Different individuals in the group usually have their assignments with respect to the discussion. For instance, a person could be the director of the discussion and another the summarizer for that particular meeting.

Literature circles talk about the author’s craft, characters and events in the book, or personal experiences connected to the story. Collaboration is at the heart of literature circles that offer students a way to undertake critical thinking and reflection as they read, respond to, and discuss books. Through structured discussion with other participants of literature circles, along with extended written and artistic responses, students can construct meaning of what they have read and even reshape and add to their comprehension. This way, literature circles direct students to a deeper understanding of the books.        

Literature circles vary – from classroom to classroom, grade to grade, teacher to teacher, and student to student. Since they are reader response-centered and have no fixed recipe, they aren’t a particular “program” and never look identical from one year to the next or even from one day to the following day. The reason is that true engagement with literature can’t probably be prescribed within a community of learners. Instead, it can just be described.

In literature circles, the role of teachers is more of an observer, facilitator, or encourager. However, any scaffolds they employ would just be temporary supports to facilitate extended and rich conversations around books or some selected sections of them.

Adaptability and simplicity are the keys to literature circles’ success. Many may think the most logical subjects that can benefit from literature circles are the ones heavy in reading, such as history, language arts, and English. However, other subjects too can use them. For example, science teachers can use literature circles to help students understand and discuss complex scientific terms.

In literature circles, teachers should ideally give students one thing to think about and focus on the conversation, beginning with a five- or ten-minute discussion. However, they should avoid giving students too much to do, such as complicated projects or a long list of questions. Else, the students’ energy will be focused on the tasks instead of delving deeper into the books. Students may be encouraged to use Post-it notes to identify pages or passages or even write down a phrase or quote they have come across while reading that they want to discuss.

These are classes of writing styles that are chosen based on different attributes such as tone, narrative technique, or content. In literature, there are four key genre types – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

Fiction

These are narrative works written in prose that aren’t real and often use elaborate figurative language. Fiction is extremely well structured and written in sentences and paragraphs with appropriate grammar and punctuation. Typically, fiction is divided into multiple chapters.

Fiction’s subject matter could be anything as it’s based on imagination. The setting of a fictional work take could be the past, the present, or the future. It may follow the occurrences in everyday life or integrate the most fantastical ideas. Examples of fictional works are folk tales, short stories, fairy tales, and novels. The Divergent trilogy, with its storyline set in a post-apocalyptic future, is a popular work of fiction.

Nonfiction

This literary genre is based on real-life and real-world experiences. Nonfictional works can be found in different forms – from newspaper articles and entries in diaries and journals to autobiographies, biographies, and essays.

Nonfiction pieces are usually written in prose, similar to fiction, and sometimes may even be divided into chapters. They can also use figurative language, though it’s not as abundant as in fiction. Typically, figurative language in nonfiction comes through well-known common phrases used daily by many. A celebrated example of nonfiction is Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, in which Anne wrote about her real-life during World War II.

Poetry

Often, poetry is considered to be the oldest form of literature. Though poetry, for many, includes rhymes and counting lines and syllables, there are diverse forms of poetry different from what most people think the standard is. For instance, some free-form poetry lack any rhyme or common patterns. Some forms like prose poetry even cross genre lines. However, a piece of text is considered a poem when it has some rhythm and focuses on the way the words, syllables, and phrases sound when they are put together. Typically, poems use a lot of imagery and metaphor. They often include phrases and fragments instead of grammatically correct and complete sentences. Poetry is almost always written in lines and stanzas that create a unique look on the page. An example of epic poetry is John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Drama

Drama or play refers to a text that’s intended to be performed rather than read. Dramas written by Shakespeare like Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet are most commonly taught in classrooms.

This is a system that helps beginners in reading to choose material at the right level of reading. It focuses on fluency and comprehension for grades K-5. Using it, students can classify books they are reading as “just right,” “too easy,” or “too hard” for their reading level.

The Goldilocks strategy helps select books that are ‘just right’ for students. This strategy draws its name from the story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears.’ In this story, Goldilocks tastes three bowls of porridge, each different from the other, and finds that she prefers porridge that’s neither too cold nor too hot but has a temperature that’s just right. Similar to Goldilocks, students too prefer activities that are neither too complex nor too simple but just right. When their reading material is too hard, they fail to grasp it and lose interest fast. Even when it’s too simple, they don’t feel challenged enough and can’t engage with it.

For instance, if Jack’s parents want to choose a suitable book for him, they should find answers to the following questions. If Jack’s answer is ‘Yes,’ the book is possibly:

Just Right

•         Is the book new to him?
•         Does Jack comprehend a lot of the book?
•         When Jack reads it, does he find some sections smooth and others difficult?
•         Are there just a handful of words in the book that Jack doesn’t know?

Too Easy

•         Has Jack read it multiple times before?
•         Does he understand the story extremely well?
•         Can he read it smoothly?
•         Does he know just about every word?

Too Hard

•         Does the book have over five words on a page not known to Jack?
•         Does Jack feel confused about what’s happening in most sections of this book?
•         When he reads it, does it sound quite difficult?
•         Is everyone else occupied and unable to help Jack?

Though parents and teachers can use this strategy, they can also teach the students how to apply it, thus letting them decide which books will be best suited to their reading level for independent reading. Once students learn how to use the Goldilocks strategy, they will become more responsible toward their reading and may possibly enjoy reading the books more.

To help students learn how to use the Goldilocks strategy, parents and teachers can:

•         Explain the strategy by using three books at each level 
•         Analyze books as a class and create a reference chart
•         Make the students implement the strategy during their independent reading sessions