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Reading Strategies 

Making Predictions

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When we make predictions, we use the author's "clues" from the text to help us think about what might happen next. A prediction is not just a guess; we need to have evidence to support it. When we talk or write about predictions, we say things like:
  • I predict that... because...
  • I think that... will happen because...
  • Since...happened, I think...
  • In the text it says, "...," so I think...
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Video review: Making Predictions

Making Connections

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When we make meaningful connections to what we are reading, it helps us to understand the text more deeply. We can connect in three main ways:
  • Text-to-Self: we relate what we're reading to something we have experienced in our own lives
  • Text-to-Text: we relate what we're reading now to something we have read before
  • Text-to-World: we relate what we're reading to something that is happening, or has happened, in the world
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Video review: Making Connections

Visualizing

Questioning

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When we visualize while we read, we create mental pictures to go with the words the author has written. Visualization helps readers to engage with the text in ways that make it personal and memorable. Good readers adapt their mental images as they read. When we write or talk about our visualizations, we say things like:
  • I'm picturing...
  • I can imagine...
  • When the author wrote...it made me visualize...
  • My mental image changed when...

Video Review: Visualizing
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By asking questions while we read, we focus our thinking on what the text is about. Good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading a story. There are two types of questions that we as readers should be asking while we read: thin questions and think questions.
  • Thin questions have answers that can be found directly in the text, like "Where does the story take place?" or "How old is the main character?"
  • Thick questions make us stop and think. They cannot be answered with a yes or a no and usually the answer cannot be found in the text. For example: "What would you have done if you were in the main character's shoes?" or "Why do you think the author included this part?".
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Video Review: Questioning

Summarizing

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When we summarize, we tell the most important parts of the text in our own words. Good summaries are concise, include the key ideas and/or story elements, and do not include too many extra details.

When we summarize fiction, the SWBST strategy can help us make sure we include all of the key elements:
  • Somebody (Who is the main character?)
  • Wanted (What did the character want?)
  • But (What was the problem?)
  • So (How did the character(s) try to solve the problem?)
  • Then (What was the resolution?)
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Video Review: Summarizing with SWBST

Inferring

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Authors never give us all of the details about the characters or events in a story. Sometimes, we have to figure things out as we read. When we make inferences about our reading, we use what we already know about the world (our schema), together with what we read in the text, to understand what the author is telling us. All inferences need to be supported with evidence from the text. When we talk or write about inferences we make, we say things like:
  • Perhaps...because...
  • I can tell...because...
  • The author wrote..., which could mean...
  • When the character said...it showed me that she/he was...
  • When I read...it made me realize...

Video Review: Making Inferences

Synthesizing

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Evaluating

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Coming soon!
When we evaluate the books we have read, we reflect on whether or not we enjoyed the book or whether or not the author accomplished his or her goals...and why. In our class, we will be writing and presenting book talks about the books we have read and loved. Book talks are a way for us to talk about our evaluations of different books and to recommend books to each other.

Some ways we can talk about our books and what we think of them include:
  • I would give this book a 10 out of 10 because...
  • This book was the best in its series because...
  • I would recommend this book to...because...
  • The part of this book I most enjoyed was...because...

Video Review: Evaluating

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