Dr. Goodreader was developed by Susan Stevens and Rakitia Delk to teach students reading strategies in a systematic way and enable them to self-diagnose problems and choose appropriate strategies, with the goal of moving from textbook instruction to reading workshops; it outlines strategies like metacognition, activating background knowledge, visualizing, inferring, questioning, determining importance, synthesizing, and evaluating.

1. Dr. Goodreader
Teaching readers how to diagnose
and cure reading "clunks"

2. Rakitia Delk and I , Susan Stevens, developed Dr. Goodreader at
InterAmerican Academy in Guayaquil, Ecuador during the course of the
2005-2006 school year.

3. The school was in the process of turning from
textbook-based reading and writing instruction to
reading and writing workshop.
We were spear-
heading the effort.
which sounds like
we were doing
this: But most
of our work-
sessions
looked
like this:

4. Even so, our beliefs in the reading research and best practices
took us back to the unit planning table. Night after night we
staggered home at 5 or 6 o’clock after hours of studying
research and planning.

5. Our goal was to teach reading strategies in a systematic
manner—and then to teach our students that they needed to
be able to choose which reading strategy to utilize at any
moment of time. So we read—a lot.

6. We decided to write a unit on each reading strategy because
good readers are active readers, and active readers use the
following strategies:
Metacognition: Metacognition is the act of thinking about
your thinking when you read. It is also called self-
monitoring. When readers are metacognitive they:
• know what they know,
• know what they don’t know, and
• know how to apply fix-up strategies when
they are confused.

7. Activate background knowledge:
Background knowledge is everything you
bring to a book:
•your life experiences,
•the places you’ve been,
•your relationships,
•everything you’ve
heard, seen, smelled, touched, tasted, and
•even what you believe.
The very act of living your life adds to
background knowledge. After
metacognition, it is the most important
reading strategy.

8. Activating background knowledge, a.k.a. schema, includes:
Making connections from
• text to self,
• text to world, and
• text to text.
We need to guide students to make connections that help their understanding
of what they’re reading as opposed to taking them down a rabbit trail.

9. http://wiki.updc.org/academymodules/a304/support/xpages/a304b0_20400.html

10. Visualize: Vizualization is making a movie in your mind when you
read. Our visualizations are unique to us and our background
knowledge.
If I read a book about growing up in northern Illinois, my visual
images are possibly going to be more detailed than yours
because I lived there as a child.
Storytelling is the best technique to help students learn to
visualize.

11. Infer: Inferring includes:
• making predictions,
•reading on the line (inferring at the word level using
context clues and word substitution),
•reading between the lines (making inferences about
what the author has implied), and
•reading beyond the lines (creating a unique meaning
that combines background knowledge, the text, and
personal response).
Inferences are evidence-based guesses. Background
knowledge generally helps us be successful, so in general,
Text + Background Knowledge = Successful Inference.

12. Question: Readers need to question as they read. The most
basic and useful question is, “Does this make sense?”
Students ask questions that help them understand the
text, “Why did Sam do that?”
They also wonder, and hopefully end each book with big
questions that draw them beyond the book into deeper
thinking and learning.

13. Determine Importance: The meaning of this strategy is
self-evident, but this is the most difficult strategy to teach.
Like many of the strategies, it links back to background
knowledge. The more we know about what we are
reading, the easier it is to pick out the main idea and
important details.
Graphic organizers are
helpful when teaching
this strategy.
ohiorc.org

14. Synthesize: Condensing or summarizing reading material from one or more text.
Much more deeply, it’s the idea of
coming up with new ideas and new
thinking based on what we read.
Synthesis is how reading changes us.
http://reading-comprehension-assistance.wikispaces.com/

15. Evaluate: We evaluate when we judge the worth of what we
have read. There are many frameworks through which to
evaluate. For example, readers can evaluate the quality of
writing, or whether a piece of writing contains fact or opinion.
catawbaschools.net
searchlores.org

16. How many times
do we hear a
variation on, “I
don’t get it.”
Dr. Goodreader is
designed for
students to learn
to self-diagnose
their “clunks”
and choose a fix-
up strategy that
will help and
move forward.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emagic/51069522/sizes/z/in/photostream/

17. Key Question: Does this make sense?
We teach this is the key question
whatever you are doing—
math, reading, writing.
Students need to be taught to ask this
question often. Some beginning readers
after every sentence.
When Rakitia did this with 3rd grade, she
taught the whole chart, but in smaller
pieces so as not to overwhelm them.

18. The next step is to fine the general area
of the problem:
Is it a problem with my mind?
Is it a problem at the word level?
Is it a problem at the sentence level?
Is it a problem at a larger level:
paragraph, page, or chapter?

19. •We spend a lot of time here, listing different types of distractions
and how to handle them.
•We often have noise from the hallway when we read or from leaf
blowers outside.
•We have noise in the classroom. Not only do we learn how to
deal with what is distracting us, but we learn not to be
distractions.
•In addition, we practice how not to BE a distraction. Like how to
close a door, etc.

20. The first part of “Did I clunk on a word?” gives fix-up strategies
that can be used to check if the word was read correctly.
How does a student know if this is the problem?
If the word they read doesn’t make sense.
Many students have a tendency to guess a word based on the first
letters. Breaking the word into syllables is another fix-up strategy
that could be added.

21. I
The second section of “Did I read this word correctly?”
has to do with coming across a word you don’t know.
The next question is, “Do we need to know this word?”
(You don’t always.)

22. I
Did I clunk on a sentence?
• Usually this is taken care of by rereading and paying attention
to the punctuation, but we’ve broken this into mini steps.
• Sometimes we need to read slower to understand, and
• Sometimes we need to read faster.

23. When you clunk on a larger piece of text, you pull more fix-up
strategies into use.
• Rereading is the most oft used and is very successful.
• For younger students you’d probably want to stop the chart after
study the pictures or retelling.
• Sometimes the author intentionally has you asking questions and
you need to read ahead.

24. Helping students build background knowledge
• If you’re going to read a chapter book out
loud, prepare a small PowerPoint about
some of the ideas they may be unfamiliar
with.
• Google images if you’re working with a
student one-on-one.
• Hand students a book with lots of pictures to
leaf through before they read about the Civil
War, etc.

25. Helping students make the movie in their minds:
• Read to them and have them draw a section of what you
have read. (Great assessment, by the way.)
• Model by drawing how you picture a passage. (You don’t
need to be Da Vinci, Picasso is just fine!
• Remember to connect visualizing to background
knowledge.
• Read chapter books and then show the part of the movie
you just read. (Chapter by chapter)

26. Helping students use their story sense:
For example, fairy tales usually start with
“Once upon a time” and end with . . .
In a mystery, the author is trying to trick
you with the clues, you need to read
super-closely.

27. If a student has to use fix-up strategies too
often, they didn’t use the Goldilock
Principle when choosing the book.
You don’t want the book to be
Too hard . .
Or too easy . . .
But . . . Just right.

28. How Can You Implement Dr. Goodreader?
• You can teach an in-depth unit on each part
of Dr. G, but that takes a lot of time.
• You can introduce a portion a week—
especially with younger kids. When Rakitia
did it she made laminated tools that went
along with Dr. G.
• You can do a quick overview and then have
students use Dr. G when they conference
with you.

29. Resources:
Dr. Goodreader blog:
http://doctorgoodreader.edublogs.org/
If you would like a PDF copy of the whole
Dr. Goodreader book, just let me know and
I’ll e-mail it to you.