reading strategies for grade 8 humans. 1. activating prior knowledge! to begin with

Reading Strategies

For Grade 8 Humans

1. Activating Prior Knowledge!

To begin with . . .

Before Reading, you need to

• Answer the question, ‘What is the purpose in reading this thing?”

• Skim the book so you know what’s coming up.

• Consider all you might know already about what you are going to read.

Activating Prior Knowledge Continued

What do you think comes next?

2. Predicting!

You guessed it!

During reading . . .

Predicting is something that comes from our schema. What the cheese is schema?

Schema is our experience and what we approach reading from – the more experiences we have, the better we can predict, which makes reading clearer and easier to understand.

Next one!

3. Making Connections!

Making Connections!

When reading, try to make meaningful connections in three ways

• Text-to-text

• Text-to-self

• Text to the wider world

4. Asking Questions!

Next!

The Three Types of Questions

1. Right There! (text explicit) The answer is directly in the text. You could put your finger on it.

Ex. What was Stanley Yelnats accused of stealing?

The Three Types of Questions

2. Kinda Right There! (text implicit) The answer is implied or suggested in the text, but is not written in “black and white.”

Ex. How does Stanley’s father feel about failure?

3. Text is there, you are there, now put them together.

Ex. Stanley was given a choice between Camp Greenlake and jail. Which would you think most boys would choose and why? Which would you choose?

The Three Types of Questions

5. Visualizing!

And now for the lovely . . .

Picture what you are reading

Visualizing . . .

Seeing in your mind what you read helps comprehension.

6. InferringNext!

Inferring!

“She is an Olympic swimmer.”

“Josh paced back and forth in front of the house, waiting for Shah to come out.”

Be careful with inferring though . . .

“He’s a huge fan of Star Trek.” (be careful of stereotypes)

7. SynthesizingAnd now for . . .

Synthesizing

A musical synthesizer is an instrument that uses electricity to make sounds.

Taking what you read and applying to other situations is synthesizing.

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And now a short break before the final 3

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8. Determining Importance

Appearing next . . .

Determining Importance

• Just like the CSI investigating a crime, determining which evidence is important and which is not, you need to do this when reading

• This is particularly important when reading non-fiction.

9. Monitoring and Repairing Comprehension

And there is also . . .

Monitoring and Repairing Comprehension

• Write down words you don’t know and try to figure out meaning from context

• Re-read sections if you are having a “huh?” moment

• Discuss what you are reading

10. Evaluating

And finally . . .

Evaluating

After reading ask yourself . . .

• Did the book fulfil the purpose?

• What was the book’s message?

• What judgements can be made about the book?