A Teachable Reading Strategy for Reading Passages

Recently I had a set of teaching objectives that I broke up in groups and created a strategic method for approaching reading passages. The method is simple, weaving the objectives together to help students tackle tough reading. This strategy is great for preparing students for standardized reading tests, and reading passages (both nonfiction and fiction) where they must demonstrate comprehension at the end by answering questions.

Strategy: Stop, Think, Track, Reread



Stop

Readers break text into manageable parts. If you are trying to learn something new, it helps to stop after reading a short portion of text in order to think about meaning, vocabulary, and new concepts.

Think
Readers think about what they've read, summarize and synthesize, and interact with and respond to the text. Once a student stops after reading a portion of the text, they need to learn to think about the text, its' meaning, and connect their own schema (or background knowledge) to the text. Many students will blow right past the words and never to stop to think about what the words mean. Stopping and thinking forces students to slow down the reading process and cognitively attend to meaning.

Track
This applies more to nonfiction than fiction. Most people do not take notes about their fiction, but a lot of people highlight, sticky note, and write notes in the margins of nonfiction books. Students can learn to track their own reading by writing short "trigger" notes after reading a major chunk of text. Teach them to focus on the main ideas in the text. For test taking purposes (or to demonstrate comprehension), students can write down the main character, problem, and solution. They may also want to make a note about the sequence of events, especially in stories that have a tricky sequence. They can go back to their side notes in order to find evidence to support their thinking when answering comprehension questions. One word of caution: slow readers in particular can get bogged down in note taking. Limit "tracking" to one to three "trigger" words to help them find the information they need.

Reread
Readers recognize when meaning breaks down. They stop and actively reread text and think about meaning. Some students benefit from reading confusing parts aloud. Sometimes a reader reads the words, but somehow manages to drift off in a daydream. They have no idea what they just read. Has this ever happened to you? Readers realize when they've read parts without thinking, stop, go back, reread, focusing on meaning.

Put this strategy together and model it by thinking out loud, and writing your thinking down in front of your students while reading the text. You may need to model several times before releasing students to practice this strategy on their own. Model this strategy using nonfiction, fiction, and practice reading test texts.

Click Here for my Lesson Plan, Bookmarks, and Poster Using the Stop, Think, Track, Reread Reading Strategy