ACTIVE READING

STRATEGIES

GOOD READERS THINK

WHILE

THEY READ

Every so often they stop and check their understanding.

They question what they’re reading.

After they finish, they think about what they read.

They predict what might happen next.

IN THE NEXT SEVERAL SLIDES, WE WILL INTRODUCE AND

PRACTICE 6 DURING AND AFTER READING STRATAGIES TO BE

USED WHILE YOU ARE READING.

USE OF THESE STRATEGIES, IF

DONE CORRECTLY, CAN IMPROVE

YOUR COMPREHENSION

OF THE STORY.

CONNECT

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFE

WHEN YOU READ

SOMETHING

VISUALIZEMAKE A

PICTURE IN YOUR MIND OF WHAT THE TEXT

SAYS

PREDICTTRY TO GUESS

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT IN THE STORY OR ARTICLE

QUESTIONLET

QUESTIONS COME TO

YOUR MIND WHEN YOU

READ

CLARIFYSLOW DOWN AND MAKE SURE YOU

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE

READING

CLARIFY• Sum up what happened in your own words,

summarize.

• Identify the main idea of the paragraph, especially in non-fiction.

• Make inferences about what the author meant but didn’t say. Read between the lines.

EVALUATEFORM

OPINIONS ABOUT WHAT YOU READ AS YOU READ IT

Baseball Saved Usby Ken Mochizuki

CONNECT

THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFE WHEN YOU READ SOMETHING

Back in school, before Camp, I was shorter and smaller than the rest of the kids. I was always the last to be picked for any team when we played games.

VISUALIZE

MAKE A PICTURE IN YOUR MIND OF WHAT THE TEXT SAYS

This Camp wasn’t anything like home. It was so hot in the daytime and so cold at night. Dust storms came and got sand in everything, and nobody could see a thing. We sometimes got caught outside, standing in line to eat or to go to the bathroom.

Once Dad asked Teddy to get him a cup of water.

” Get it yourself,” Teddy said.

“What did you say?” Dad snapped back.

The older men stood up and pointed at Teddy. “How dare you talk to your father like that!” one of them shouted.

Teddy got up, kicked the crate he was setting on, and walked away. I never heard Teddy talk to Dad that way before.

PREDICT

TRY TO GUESS WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT IN THE STORY OR ARTICLE

That’s when Dad knew we needed baseball. We got shovels and started digging up the sagebrush in a big empty space near our barracks.

PREDICT

THE READER MIGHT PREDICT: I bet Teddy’s Dad is going to whoop him, especially since he talked back to him in front of other people.

Then a few months ago, it got worse. The kids started calling me names and nobody talked to me, even though I didn’t do anything bad. At the same time the radio kept talking about some place far away called Pearl Harbor.

QUESTION

LET QUESTIONS COME TO YOUR MIND WHEN YOU READ

All the time I practiced, the man in the tower watched. He probably saw the other kids giving me a bad time and thought that I was no good. So I tried to be better because he was watching.

CLARIFY

SLOW DOWN AND MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE READING

But it wasn’t as if everything were fixed. Things were bad again when we got home from Camp after the war. Nobody talked to us on the street, and nobody talked to us at school, either. Most of my friends from Camp didn’t come back here. I had to eat lunch by myself.

EVALUATE

FORM OPINIONS ABOUT WHAT YOU READ AS YOU READ IT

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

This has been:

ACTIVE READING

STRATEGIES

In concurrence with:

The Pennsylvania Standards

for

Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening

1.2.A – Read and understand essential content of informational texts and documents in all academic areas.

1.3.A – Read and understand works of literature.

Acknowledgments

1. Bridges to Literature McDougal – Little. Copyright 2002.

2. Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki. Copyright 1993.