Reading strategies for Before, During, and After reading, geared toward 6th grade and higher students reading nonfiction works.

1. READING STRATEGY METHODS-
BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER
READING
Charlene Roddy
RED4348-Literacy Development K-12
April 4th, 2014

2. BEFORE READING
 Before reading
strategies activate
student’s prior
knowledge about the
topic/theme.
 Teachers can discuss
critical information
and vocabulary
needed for effective
reading of the text.
Strategies:
 Anticipation Guide
 Think-alouds
 Pre-teach Vocabulary
 Listen-Read-Discuss
 Concept Sorts

3. ANTICIPATION GUIDE
 Anticipation guides set a purpose to the reading
of a text by challenging students to think about
what they already know of the topic
 Can be completed individually or in small groups
 Whole class discussions regarding student
answers on the anticipation guide activate
critical thinking before reading
 Students keep the guide to refer to during
reading to see if their thoughts were correct, or
how they have rethought their original answers

4. THINK-ALOUDS
 Teachers show students what reading
comprehension looks like by describing their own
thought process when reading text
 Teacher modeling improves student’s abilities to
use the same strategies while independently
reading

5. PRE-TEACH VOCABULARY
 The teacher creates a list of important, useful,
and difficult vocabulary words found in the text
that students will need to know to understand
the text
 Teachers should not introduce more than two
vocabulary words at a time
 Students will be taught the meaning(s) of the
words through direct instruction and examples

6. LISTEN-READ-DISCUSS
 Allows students to establish prior knowledge, and
gain a basic understanding prior to reading
 Students listen to a presentation of the content of
the selected reading
 Students read the text, comparing what they
learned during the lecture to what information
they read in the text
 Students discuss their understanding based on
the prior lecture combined with the reading in a
small or whole group setting

7. CONCEPT SORTS
 Vocabulary strategy where students sort words
from new written text into pre-determined
categories based on their meaning
 Sorts allow teachers to see what words their
students already understand and know, as well
as how much background knowledge the students
may have about the new content of written text
 After sorting, students explain why they sorted
the words the way they did to demonstrate their
comprehension and thinking

8. DURING READING
 During reading
strategies ensure
students are
comprehending the
material while
interacting with it.
 Allows time for fixing
comprehension issues
and applying
comprehension
strategies before
students become too
lost or confused.
Strategies:
 Self-Questioning
 Graphic organizers
 Reciprocal Teaching
 Paired Reading
 Text Structure

9. SELF-QUESTIONING
 Students independently reflect on what they are
reading by asking themselves questions
 Teachers prompt students to ask questions at
points in the text through the use of question
words-who, what, where, when, why, how
 Self-Questioning also aids in self-monitoring
through students recognizing what they do not
understand about a written text, and asking
themselves questions about what to do to
understand the text

10. GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
 Visual representations of information showing
the relationships between ideas, facts, and
vocabulary terms
 Best suited for independent work
 Organizers include tables, timelines, flowcharts,
diagrams
 Can also be used after or before reading, though
student engagement is not as high during these
times

11. RECIPROCAL TEACHING
 Teaches students to find the important ideas
from a written text
 Use during reading to generate questions about
the text
 Students can keep track of words and phrases
that confused them, or that they did not
understand
 After reading, students share their questions and
thoughts within a small group setting, and create
a discussion and summary of the reading

12. PAIRED READING
 Peer teaching and learning
 Students work in pairs to read together, or take
turns reading out loud
 Paired Reading helps students who may struggle
with reading, as they receive assistance and
encouragement throughout the reading from
their peer
 Students interact with one another during the
reading, enabling the sharing of thoughts and
asking of questions to increase comprehension

13. TEXT STRUCTURE
 Ways certain types of text are organized to form a
framework or pattern of information
 Contain signal words to clue students in to type of
structure being used, and the information being provided
 Expository text structures:
 Descriptive-describes something or where something is
 Procedural-how to do or make something; sequence of events
 Cause/effect-why something happens, and what might happen
next
 Problem/solution-states a problem and offers solutions to the
problem
 Comparison/contrast-how two things are the same or different
 Enumerative-a list of things related to the topic

14. AFTER READING
 Strategies will
increase student
comprehension of
what has been read
 Students can extend
their new knowledge
through applying it to
future ideas,
activities, and text
Strategies:
 Summarizing
 Exit Slips
 Question-Answer-
Relationships
 Question the Author
 RAFT Writing

15. SUMMARIZING
 A breakdown of the important ideas in a written
text
 Students identify the main ideas and supporting
details of the text
 Summarizing also allows students to evaluate
their understanding of the text, tell important
information, and recall what they have read
 Students can use the graphic organizer strategy
as a prompt to aid in summarizing the story

16. EXIT SLIPS
 Students reflect on what they have learned, and
state what they now think and believe after
taking in the new text
 Teacher provides a prompt for students after the
reading to respond to using written responses
 Prompts include:
 Write one thing you learned today.
 Write one question you have about today’s lesson.
 I would like to learn more about…

17. QUESTION-ANSWER-
RELATIONSHIPS
 Students think critically and creatively about the
written text, using information from the text as well
as their own knowledge and thoughts to answer
questions after reading
 Four types:
 Right There questions-the answer is directly written in the
text.
 Think and Search questions-individual answers are found
by combining different parts of the text.
 Author and You questions-the author provides information,
and the reader must use their own experience paired with
the text information to respond.
 On My Own-students use background/prior knowledge to
respond to the question.

18. QUESTION THE AUTHOR
 Students can question and critique the author to
enhance their comprehension of what they have read
 Involves a student-led discussion with the questions
presented; teachers facilitate the discussion and
provide prompts to keep the students on track
 The teacher prepares and models the strategy using
questions designed to encourage critical thinking
 What is the author trying to say?
 Does this make sense to you?

19. RAFT WRITING
 Written projects and assignments that enhance
student comprehension of previously read texts
 More imaginative, interpretive; allows for the
processing of the ideas and information in different
ways
 Includes four dimensions:
 Role-the person or people the student becomes (book
character, historical figure, personality)
 Audience-the person or people who will read or view this
project (students, teachers, parents)
 Format-genre or activity that students create (letter,
brochure, cartoon, journal, essay, etc.)
 Topic-the subject of the project (issue related to the text, a
question, etc.)

20. REFERENCES
 All about Adolescent Literacy-Classroom Strategies. (2014).
Retrieved from www.adlit.org/strategy_library/
 Bursuck, W.D., Damer, M. (2011). Teaching Reading to Students
Who Are at Risk or Have Disabilities. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
 Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century: a balanced
approach. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.