This document provides an overview of effective reading strategies for 6th grade students to use before, during, and after reading nonfiction texts. Some key strategies discussed include activating prior knowledge, previewing texts, teaching vocabulary, using anticipation guides, think alouds, graphic organizers, making inferences, monitoring comprehension, summarizing, exit slips, RAFT writing, and questioning the author. The purpose of teaching these strategies is to help students actively engage with texts, understand what they are reading, and develop independence as readers.

1. Reading Strategy
Methods for 6th Grade
Nonfiction
Before, During, and After
Reading
Diane Bainter
RED4348
Indian River State College
July 26, 2014

2. Reading Strategies
"Why reading strategies," you ask?
Well, let me give you a few reasons why reading strategies are so important.
• According to the National Reading Panel, students need explicit instruction in reading
comprehension. As teachers, we get to demonstrate to students a variety of reading
strategies to help them understand, discuss, and interpret text. This goes a long way
to create independent readers. (Gibson, 2004).
• When readers generate questions about the text before or during reading, they read
forward to search for answers, actively comprehending as they read. (Underwood,
1997).
• Teaching students to read actively and purposefully with strategies helps them become
proficient readers and prevents later reading difficulties. (Gibson, 2004).
• Nonfiction books give students a chance to learn new concepts and vocabulary, as well
as broaden their view of the world.(Reading Rockets, 2012).
So, take a walk with me as we go over some excellent reading strategies
to use before, during, and after reading...

3. Before Reading Nonfiction Strategies
Teachers will prepare students
for the reading by:
• Connecting new text
information to prior
knowledge
• Teaching new vocabulary
words
• Setting a purpose for
reading
Students will learn to:
• Read titles and headings
• Predict what the passage
may be about
• Ask themselves what they
already know about the
topic

4. Before Reading Nonfiction Strategies
Anticipation Guide - builds curiosity about a new topic, stimulates
students' interest and sets a purpose for reading
Preview the text - Look through the chapter and read headings,
examine pictures and graphs and read their captions, look at words
in bold or italics
New Vocabulary Words - Pre-teach pronunciations and definitions of
new vocabulary words so students won't stumble over them later.
Activate Prior Knowledge - establishing what students already know
about a topic because good readers make predictions based on
background knowledge (Bursuck, p. 276).
Examine Text Structure - Identifying how the text is organized and
why will determine how students approach the reading.

5. Anticipation Guides:
• Challenges students to think
about what they know about a
topic.
• Can be completed individually,
in pairs, small groups or as a
whole class.
• Activates critical thinking.
• Can be revisited after reading
to evaluate how well students
understood the material and
to correct any misconceptions.

6. Preview the Text
• By examining the headings,
maps, bold or italicized words,
pictures, graphs, and text boxes,
students can get an idea of what
they will be reading about and
what the author sees as
important.

7. Pre-Teach New Vocabulary Words...
• This is helpful especially with
non-fiction when there is a lot
of specialized vocabulary to
introduce.
• One method, concept maps,
help reading skills by providing
the content to which students
can attach new vocabulary.
• This strategy can be used with
small groups or the entire
class.
Concept Maps:
• Introduce the book or topic to be
read;
• Choose relevant, important
vocabulary terms;

8. Activate Prior Knowledge
• This can be completed as a
whole class discussion,
individually or in pairs.
• Ask the students what they
already know about the topic.
• This can be written out in the
Know and Want to Know
sections of a KWL chart.
• The Learned section of the
chart can be filled out after
the lesson.

9. Examine Text Structure
• Knowing the different text
structures and how they are
organized helps students
understand what they read.
• For instance, if a student
knows a text will be
cause/effect, they will look
for the details of the two
main ideas.

10. During Reading Nonfiction Strategies
Teachers will:
• Guide students by using
strategies to help the
students understand
what they are reading.
• Allow time to fix
comprehension issues
before students become
too confused.
Students will learn to:
• Monitor their
understanding
• Generate questions
• Make inferences
• Stay focused

11. During Reading Nonfiction Strategies
• Think Aloud – teacher models the active thinking process that skilled readers
use.
• Monitor Comprehension - Monitoring/Clarifying helps students focus their
attention on the fact that there may be reasons why the text is difficult to
understand. Students can be taught to ask questions, reread, restate, and
visualize to comprehend the text.
• Graphic Organizers – These visual representations of the text used while
students read can organize information for them and can show students
relationships between facts, terms and ideas.
• Make Inferences – Use prior knowledge and text information to understand an
author’s inferences.
• Jigsaw – a method that encourages group sharing and learning of specific
content. It helps students learn cooperation as group members share
responsibility for each other’s learning.

12. Think Alouds
• Teachers verbalize their own
metacognitive skills aloud so
students can hear how
skilled readers think.
• Teachers can think aloud
about a comprehension
strategy, the meaning of a
vocabulary word, their
understanding of a piece of
text, or predicting what
comes next in the text.
Watch this short video for a
good Think Aloud example.
• http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=PKvaEPbOO9g

13. Monitor/Clarify
• Helps students focus their
attention on the text. They
are taught to ask questions,
reread, restate, and visualize
to understand the text better.
• Strategies such as Fix-Up help
students straighten out their
confusion. Teach them to
sound out a word, define it, or
use context clues to clear up
any confusion.

14. Graphic Organizers
• Visual representations of
information that are used
while students read to keep
them actively thinking and
organizing facts and ideas.
• Graphic organizers should
be simple.
• A completed concept map
can be used or students can
be required to fill out a map
as they read.

15. Make Inferences
• This strategy helps students make
connections between their
personal experiences and their
comprehension of a text.
• Focuses on student thinking and
how new information reshapes
prior knowledge.
• Inferential reading can be taught
using a variety of reading
material.
Sample prompts
• "Look for pronouns and figure out
what to connect them to."
• "Figure out explanations for these
events."
• "Think about something that you
know about this (insert topic) and
see how that fits with what's in the
text."
• "Look for words that you don't
know and see whether other words
in the sentence or surrounding
sentences can give you an idea what
those unknown words mean."

16. Jigsaw
• Encourages group sharing and
learning of specific content.
• Each group member is
responsible for becoming an
"expert" on one section of the
assigned material and then
"teaching" it to the other
members of the team
• Monitoring each student's
participation within the groups
provides teachers with
information about how much the
students already know about the
topic
Watch this short video for
techniques to use the Jigsaw
strategy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
RrtuTrobf2w

17. After Reading Nonfiction Strategies
Teachers will:
• Provide the opportunity to
apply critical thinking skills.
• Teach students to
summarize main ideas.
• Help students integrate
what they have learned
with what they already
knew.
Students will learn to
• Think about what they read
and review questions.
• Outline a text
• Summarize a reading
selection.
• Write or speak on a
specified topic.

18. After Reading Nonfiction Strategies
• QAR – Teacher guides students into understanding and answering the
four types of questions, Right there, Think and Search, Author and You,
and On My Own.
• Summarizing – Teaches students how to take a large part of the text
and consolidate it to the main points.
• Exit Slips - Requires students to write responses to questions teachers ask
at the end of class. Exit Slips help students reflect on what they have
learned and express what or how they are thinking about the new
information.
• RAFT – Students respond to a writing prompt that requires them to
think about the reading from a different perspective.
• Question the Author – Students question and discuss the author’s
writing.

19. After Reading Nonfiction Strategies
• QAR – Question Answer
Relationship
• Teaches students how to ask
questions about their
reading and where to find
the answers.
• Using higher-level thinking
skills, improves students’
reading comprehension.
1. Explain to students that there are four types of questions they will encounter.
Define each type of question, give an example.
o Right There Questions: Literal questions whose answers can be found
in the text. Often the words used in the question are the same words found in the text.
o Think and Search Questions: Answers are gathered from several parts
of the text and put together to make meaning.
o Author and You: These questions are based on information provided in
the text but the student is required to relate it to their own experience. Although the
answer does not lie directly in the text, the student must have read it in order to
answer the question.
o On My Own: These questions do not require the student to have read
the passage but he/she must use their background or prior knowledge to answer the
question.
2. Read a short passage aloud to your students.
3. Have predetermined questions you will ask after you stop reading. When you have
finished reading, read the questions aloud to students and model how you decide which
type of question you have been asked to answer.
4. Show students how find information to answer the question (i.e., in the text, from
your own experiences, etc.).

20. Summarizing
• Teaches students how to
discern the most important
ideas in a text.
• Helps students focus on key
words and phrases that
need to be remembered.
• Teaches students how to
reduce a large selection of
text to the main points.

21. Exit Slips
• Help students reflect on what they have
learned.
• Allow students to state their thoughts
about new information.
• Gives teachers an informal measure of
how well students have understood a
topic or lesson
Three categories of exit slips
• Prompts that document learning:
—Example: Write one thing you learned
today.
—Example: Discuss how today's lesson
could be used in the real world.
• Prompts that emphasize the process of
learning:
—Example: I didn't understand…
—Example: Write one question you have
about today's lesson.
• Prompts to evaluate the effectiveness of
instruction
—Example: Did you enjoy working in
small groups today?
• Other exit prompts include:
—I would like to learn more about…
—Please explain more about…
—The thing that surprised me the most
today was…
—I wish…

22. RAFT
• Includes writing from different
viewpoints
• Helps students understand the
importance of, the various formats
for, and different topics for
writing.
• Teaches students to think creatively
about writing.
Students respond to prompts
Role of the Writer: Who or what are
you as the writer? A pilgrim? A
soldier? The President?
Audience: To whom are you writing?
A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a
newspaper?
Format: In what format are you
writing? A letter? A poem? A speech?
Topic and strong verb: What are you
writing about? Why? What's the
subject or the point?

23. Question the Author
• Encourages students to ask questions of the
author and the text.
• Students understand more about the text.
• Teaches students to critique the author’s
writing
Examples of Questions to Ask the Author
• Initiating Queries (get a discussion started):
• Does this make sense to you?
• What do you think the author is attempting to say
here?
• Follow-up Queries (help students connect
meaning with their idea of author intention):
• Why do you think the author chose to use this
phrase or wording in this specific spot?
• Did the author explain this clearly?
• Did the author tell us why?
• Why do you think the author tells us this now?
• Narrative Queries (help students think about
character and craft):
• How do things look for this character now?
• How has the author let you know that something
has changed?
• How has the author settled this for us?

24. References
Bursuck, W., & Damer, M. (2011). Teaching Reading to Students Who Are at Risk or Have Disabilities.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Classroom Strategies: Exit Slips. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19805/.
Classroom Strategies: Inferential Reading. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23355/.
Classroom Strategies: Jigsaw. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22371/.
Classroom Strategies: Monitoring/Clarifying. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23357/.
Classroom Strategies: Question-Answer Relationship. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19802/.
Classroom Strategies: Question the Author. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19796/.
Classroom Strategies: RAFT Writing. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19783/.
Classroom Strategies: Summarizing. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.adlit.org/strategies/21827/.

25. References
Gibson, A. (2004). Reading for Meaning: Tutoring Elementary Students to Enhance Comprehension.
From The Tutor Newsletter, Spring 2004, 1-12. Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/22800.
Reading Rockets. (2012). Getting the Most Out of Nonfiction Reading Time. Retrieved from:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/55348.
Texas Education Agency. Strategies that Promote Comprehension. Retrieved from:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/29202.
Underwood, T. (1997). On knowing what you know: Metacognition and the act of reading. The Clearing House, 71(2), 77-80.
Retrieved from: http://www.collegetransition.org/promisingpractices.research.readingstrategies.html