After Reading Strategies
After Reading strategies help students cement connections between the known and the new. With narrative text, you might use class discussion to tie the experiences in the story to specific events that your students have experienced. One basic strategy (usually used for expository text) is a KWL (Know-Want to Know-Learned) chart. This chart may be extended into a KWL PLUS, which adds in a graphic organizer.
For example, you might have your students do the following:
- complete the L column of a KWL chart
- construct a graphic organizer using the information from the L column
- reflect upon the reading
- summarize
- journal
The last three points are not part of a KWL but they are After Reading strategies that can be used in conjunction with a KWL chart.
The L column of the KWL chart can actually be completed either During Reading or After Reading. By adding the graphic organizer to this strategy, students must organize and categorize the information found in the text. This activity helps forge stronger connections with what is already known and the new information. Reflection is a strategy that is appropriate for both narrative and expository text. You can construct that reflection in a number of ways. For instance you can give your students guiding questions that will support learning. For example:
- How does this fit with what I already know?
- Is there anything that does not match what I already know?
- Is there anything confusing about this information?
This reflection strategy can be done as a whole class, in small groups, pairs, or individually. You can also use it with both narrative and expository texts.
If using an expository text, like newspaper articles, you can use the 5 W's & 1 H strategy:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
Students can also journal their answers, participate in a whole group discussion, or even discuss answers in a small group format.