During Reading Strategies
The following strategies are designed to support active engagement with the text and scaffold comprehension of the text. You'll find that they mirror the strategies within your text, But I'm Not a Reading Teacher by Amy Benjamin.
Using text organization
One of the easiest ways to teach text organization is with a graphic organizer. With both narrative and expository text, you can choose text structure examples for easily understood text. Use cue words or phrases to model text structure. Relevant information should be placed in the appropriate graphic organizer.
Using the gradual release model, you can demonstrate each structure as many times as necessary. Increase the difficulty of the text until your students are working on actual passages from the text(s) being used within your classroom. Practice each text structure before introducing another one to your students.
Visualization
To begin a visualization exercise, choose a paragraph(s) that provides a detailed description of the physical appearance of a person, place or thing. Read that paragraph(s) to your students and have them discuss the "pictures" that they see in their head. Have them refer to the text to support those "pictures." Encourage your students to "watch their own movie" while reading. Alternatively, ask students to sketch the person, place or thing described in the text.
Consciously making connections between background information and the text
Students may not realize that they need to make a connection between what they already know with what the text is saying to comprehend it. You must discuss explicitly with your students about what they already know and how that can help them understand what they are reading. One example is a think-aloud, during which you would discuss the background information with students while connecting to the text at the same time.
QAR
Another useful strategy is QAR (Question Answer Relationship). Students use this strategy to determine the answer to questions. The QAR categories students use to formulate answers are:
- Right there - the answer is directly stated in the text (knowledge)
- Think and search - the answer is in the text but is generally scattered throughout the text so that the reader must pull the pieces together to come up with the answer (comprehension and synthesis)
- Author and me - the answer is not in the text (inferential); read the text and add background information to come up with an answer to the question (inferential)
- On my own - no text is required since the answer is based upon the reader's opinion and background information
(Raphael 1982, 1986)
Resources
- Text Structures
- Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)
- Question Answer Relationship (QAR) Reading and Learning Strategy