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Teachers and students love double-entry journals because they are inherently collaborative and foster a connection between reading and writing.

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How do you help students become better at summarizing what they read and be more aware of when they are or are not understanding what they read? Paragraph shrinking combines summarizing with peer feedback to create a powerful approach to growing students' understanding and confidence as readers.

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Background

Reading Guides help students navigate reading material, especially difficult textbook chapters or technical reading. Students respond to a teacher-created written guide of prompts as they read an assigned text. Reading Guides help students to comprehend the main points of the reading and understand the organizational structure of a text.

Benefits

Reading Guides are teacher-created and may be developed for a variety of subjects and reading levels. The strategy is especially helpful when used with text that is more difficult than students could comprehend through independent reading. Reading Guides may be used with the whole class, small groups or for individual work.

Create and use the strategy

The teacher determines the major concepts from an assigned text and considers each students' knowledge related to the concepts. Teachers then write items designed to guide readers through the major ideas and supporting details of the text. Guides may be phrased as statements or as questions.

Begin the activity by introducing the assigned text and discussing the main concepts. Then present the items on the Reading Guide. Students read the assigned text and complete the tasks on the Reading Guides during the reading process. Monitor and support students as they work.

Note: As students gain proficiency at completing Reading Guides, they may design their own guides and provide support for one another.

Sample content for a reading guide

The following is a list of sample items that teachers might include on a Reading Guide:

What is the main idea of the text?

The author's purpose for writing the text is...

The author discusses the differences between ____ and ____ .

What are the important dates discussed in the reading?

The most significant contribution of ____ was...

What might be your personal experiences related to the reading?

The author's motivation for writing the text was...

References

Horton, S.V., & Lovitt, T.C. (1989). Using study guides with three classifications of secondary students. Journal of Special Education, 22(4), 447-462.

SEDL. (2008). Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

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Reading Guides help students navigate reading material, especially difficult textbook chapters or technical reading. Students respond to a teacher-created written guide of prompts as they read an assigned text. Reading Guides help students to comprehend the main points of the reading and understand the organizational structure of a text.

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Background

SQ3R is a comprehension strategy that helps students think about the text they are reading while they're reading. Often categorized as a study strategy, SQ3R helps students "get it" the first time they read a text by teaching students how to read and think like an effective reader.

This strategy includes the following five steps:

Survey: Students review the text to gain initial meaning from the headings, bolded text, and charts.

Question: Students begin to generate questions about their reading from previewing it.

Read: As students read, they need to look for answers to the questions they formulated during their preview of the text. These questions, based on the structure of the text, help focus students' reading.

Recite: As students move through the text they should recite or rehearse the answers to their questions and make notes about their answer for later studying.

Review: After reading, students should review the text to answer lingering questions and recite the questions they previously answered.

Benefits

Do you have students who get to the end of reading their textbook selection and have no idea what they've read? These students can benefit from using the SQ3R because it requires them to activate their thinking and review their understanding throughout their reading.

It also dissuades students from waiting and then cramming for tests since the five steps requires them to review information and create notes during their initial reading. Their notes from the initial reading become their study guides.

Create and use the strategy

As with its sister strategy Question-Answer Relationship (QAR), SQ3R requires the teacher to model.

1. Explain to students that effective readers do many things while reading, including surveying, questioning, reading, reciting and reviewing.

2. Choose a content area passage to read and model the five SQ3R steps.

3. During each step, make sure to explain what you're doing and why you're doing it.

4. After your modeling session, invite students to independently read a selection and practice applying the SQ3R steps. This could be completed as an in-class or take-home assignment.

5. Afterwards ask students to review their notes and reflect on the process. Were they surprised by how much they remember by using the SQ3R method?

6. Students may not be "sold" on this strategy the first time they try it. Not all readings will be worth the time it takes to complete the SQ3R steps, so help students to understand not just how to apply it, but when to apply it.

Related Resources

References

Fisher, D., and Frey, N, (2004). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Strategies at Work. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

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SQ3R is a comprehension strategy that helps students think about the text they are reading while they're reading. Often categorized as a study strategy, SQ3R helps students "get it" the first time they read a text by teaching students how to read and think like an effective reader.

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The Frayer Model is a simple approach to building students' vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. It can be used across content areas/disciplines, builds students' critical thinking skills, and can expand their word knowledge.