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ACTIVATE:
When students read with a clear purpose in mind, they will be more engaged, focused, and remember more of the text. Teachers use the purpose to guide the selection of a text and the tasks that follow the reading. Students need to understand the reasons that the text has been assigned and also mesh that purpose with personal goals for the reading. Setting the expectation that students will ask questions before, during, and, after the reading helps to set the purposes for comprehension. By generating questions, students become more metacognitive and can monitor to see if they understand what they are reading. Asking questions after reading helps students to combine information from different parts of the text.
PREPARATION:
Prepare a collaborative activity—such as Give One, Get One or Conga Line—for the portion of the instructional practice where students share predictions.
STEPS:
ANCHOR CHART: Create an anchor chart and brainstorm with your students a list of reasons for reading (“Why Are You Reading?”). (See Teacher Resource: Questions to Pose About the Reading for suggested reasons.)
MODEL THINKING WHILE READING LIST: Model thinking while reading from a personal reading list, sharing the varied reasons for reading using several examples (e.g., The New York Times, a new appliance manual, a cartoon, a website on sports scores).
MODEL CHOOSING A REASON FOR READING: Model choosing a reason for reading from the list as you make assignments for readings.
REFER TO PURPOSE: Refer to the purpose when asking students to chart the text or write in the margins.
SCAFFOLDS:
Model reading for a purpose with a read-aloud, followed by a think-aloud about what you notice as a reader that fits with that purpose as you read.
Stop to reflect and Think–Pair–Share, having students discuss what they are noticing in the text that fits with the purpose and why.
Use prompts that help students keep in mind the purpose:
Read until you can tell if this is fact or fiction, and then tell how you know.
Read until you find the setting and main characters in the story.
Stop reading when you find out how the problem gets solved.
Read until you get to the part where ____________________.
Stop and draw a picture after page ___ to show what you think will happen next.
EXTENSION:
To increase rigor, when reading an informational text, ask students to turn the title and subtitles of the text into questions before reading. Use three-column notes to record the title and subtitles on the left, the question in the middle column, and notes on the answer gleaned during reading in the third column.
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