Non-Fiction

Text Structuresand

Before, During, and After Reading Strategies

BEFORE READING

• K-W-L Chart - K (what I know), W (what I want to know), L (summarize what I learned). This activity helps activate background knowledge, while building background knowledge for peers. From your background knowledge, you can come up with a list of questions of what they would like to learn. ”Synthesizing” of knowledge takes place when you write what they have learned. Monitoring Comprehension

• Skimming and Scanning – This is a necessary skill to quickly find the most important information in a text. Work in pairs to skim and scan the nonfiction text features (title, headings, glossary, maps, charts, bold faced words, etc.), and read only the first and last paragraphs.

- Predict what you think the text will be about. - Write down questions/comments in one column, and facts you

have quickly just learned in another column. - Infer: What will be the important points in the text? Critical Thinking 

DURING READING

• Reciprocal Teaching - Use this strategy to focus and monitor your reading in order to achieve higher comprehension. Use the strategies of predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing as you read a short section together. Monitoring Comprehension

• DR-TA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) - Brainstorm words or ideas associated with a topic. Examine the text’s or chapter’s features such as illustrations, graphs, charts. . . . to form inferences, predictions, and questions of what you will read. Discuss inferences and predictions to see if they were confirmed or need to be revised. Monitoring Comprehension

• TAG (Textbook Activity Guide) – Use prompts to help focus on reading strategies and to self-monitor

comprehension to help them understand a text. Monitoring Comprehension

• Cornell Note-Taking - Use this strategy to build comprehension and to remember more of what you read or view. It supports you in making connections, developing questions, focusing and monitoring your reading, and analyzing what you have learned. Remember to Fold a piece of paper in half. One side is for questions, the other side is for notes, and leave a space at the bottom for summarizing. During reading or while viewing a video clip, take notes, and develop questions that your notes would answer. Use these notes to summarize the main ideas at the bottom of the page. Monitoring Comprehension

AFTER READING

• Exit Slips - This strategy is good for assessing what you have learned at the end of class. Follow the prompts given to you for a focused writing that will give the me feedback about the learning. Some exit slip prompts may include: Write about something you learned today. What questions do you still have? How did what we learned today connect with what we learned prior?

• GIST (Generating Interactions Between Schemata and Texts) – This strategy helps you to write organized summaries. Read sections of info and summarize into one sentence of 15 words or less.

Good Readers of Informational Text

• Have clear goals for their reading• Preview the text before reading, noticing the nonfiction text features• Activate prior knowledge• Make predictions• Use meaning, and expect the text to make sense• Monitor their reading ~ ask “Do I understand this?”• Make connections: text to self, text to text, text to world• Create visual images• Use the text features (heading, captions, maps, etc.) actively and consciously• Draw inferences and conclusions• Ask questions as they read• Read different kinds of informational texts differently• Skim and scan to recheck information• Locate information• Adjust reading rate to match text demands• Make a plan when reading• Identify important ideas and words• Shift strategies to match purpose• Retell, summarize, synthesize• Use fix-up strategies: read on and go back, backtrack, context clues, make substitutions, break unfamiliar words into

parts

Nonfiction Prompts

• I learned. . .• I never knew. . .• I already knew that. . .• I was wrong to think. . .• I wonder why. . .• I still don’t know. . .• An important date is. . .• The confusing thing is. . .• This helped me explain. . .• I was suprised. . .• I also want to read. . .• The index helped me. . .• I like learning. . .• I would recommend this book to. . .• I would like to share my learning by. . .• Some interesting facts are. . .• I want to learn more about. . .• This book answered my questions about. . .