Alexis Pearse

McGregor RDG 351

Pre-reading strategies: vocab
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Possible Sentences. 2014.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/possible_sentences

Name: Possible Sentences
Steps:
Have students of varying abilities work together to develop sentences.
Invite students to share their sentences with the class.
If students have never completed possible sentences you will need to model the process for
your students.
Provide clues for younger readers by writing sentences and leaving blanks for them to fill in
vocabulary words.
Give ESL students the vocabulary words in both English and their native language. Ask them to
write sentences in English.
As a post reading game, students can share their sentences without disclosing which are
accurate or inaccurate. Teams of students can try to decipher, based on their reading, which
sentences are accurate.
Strengths: It activates students prior knowledge about content area vocabulary and concepts,
and can improve their reading comprehension. It also gives students a chance to guess what
vocabulary words might mean.
Weaknesses: The students may not take anything away from the process and it may not help
them understand the words.
Example:
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/possiblesentences.pdf

During-reading Strategies: vocab
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Semantic Feature Analysis. 2014.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/semantic_feature_analysis

Name: Semantic Feature Analysis

Steps:
1. Select a category or topic for the semantic feature analysis.
2. Provide students with key vocabulary words and important features related to the topic.
3. Vocabulary words should be listed down the left hand column and the features of the
topic across the top row of the chart.
4. Have students place a "+" sign in the matrix when a vocabulary word aligns with a
particular feature of the topic. If the word does not align students may put a "" in the
grid. If students are unable to determine a relationship they may leave it blank
Strengths/ Weaknesses:
The strategy is a great way to see what the students know about the information before it is
discussed, but it does not engage all students attention on the topic and does not excite them
about the topic.
Example:
C:\Users\User\Downloads\semanticfeature_math (1).pdf






Post-reading strategy: vocab
APA citation:
Reading Rockets. Word Walls. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls
Name: Word Wall
Steps:
Make words accessible by putting them where every student can see them. They should be
written in large black letters using a variety of background colors to distinguish easily confused
words.
Teachers and students should work together to determine which words should go on the word
wall. Try to include words that children use most commonly in their writing. Words should be
added gradually a general guideline is five words per week.
Use the word wall daily to practice words, incorporating a variety of activities such as chanting,
snapping, cheering, clapping, tracing, word guessing games as well as writing them.
Provide enough practice so that words are read and spelled automatically and make sure that
words from the wall are always spelled correctly in the children's daily writing.
New information should be added on a regular basis.
Use content-area material from the curriculum rather than randomly selected words.
Word walls should be referred to often so students come to understand and see their
relevance.

Strengths: This strategy is a great way to help students see patterns and relationships in words,
which helps the building of phonics and spelling skills.
Weaknesses: Not all students will be able to take this and be successful; some students may be
bored with this strategy and it may not challenge them enough.
Example:
Squirrel start lap
Shout Happy Run
play Stay leap

Have the students play word wall bingo. They would make a bingo card and choose some of the
word wall words. You would then play bingo with the class to have them all interact together.
Post-reading Strategy: ELL
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Exit Slip. 2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/exit_slips
Name: Exit Slip
Steps:
Have a variety of exit slips and differentiate which students get which ones
Allow students to work on their exit slips in pairs or small groups
Allow students to verbally express the information
Strength: The teacher will be able to see what the students took away from the reading, and if
it is not what they wanted to achieve they can keep working on it.
Weakness: Kids may not take anything away and the teacher may have to spend more time on
the subject.
Example:
Name one thing you learned today



Name one thing that you did not understand
_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________



During-reading Strategy: ELL
APA Citation:
Reading Rockets. Partner Reading. 2014.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/partner_reading
Name: Partner Reading
Steps:
Writing: students write down the summary they developed and/or responses to the following:
o the who or what of the paragraph;
o the most important thing about who or what; and
o the main idea
Strength: The students will interact with their peers and be able to express their thoughts with
each other.
Weakness: Students may have language barriers and may not understand the content.












Pre-reading Strategy: ELL
APA Citation:
Reading Rockets. Think Alouds. 2014.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds
Name: Think-aloud; ELL
Steps:
Have students do think-alouds in large or small groups; teacher and other students monitor and
help.
Ask students do think-alouds individually, and then compare with others. Students can write
their own commentary.
Complete, or have students complete, think-alouds orally, in writing, on an overhead, with
Post-it notes, or in a journal.
Strengths: It helps students learn to monitor their thinking as they read and improves their
comprehension.
Weakness: The teacher may have time grasping all students attention, and may not be able to
get a lot of the students thoughts out and some students may be shy.
Example:
What do I know about this topic?
What do I think I will learn about this topic?
Do I understand what I just read?
Do I have a clear picture in my head about this information?
What more can I do to understand this?
What were the most important points in this reading?
What new information did I learn?
How does it fit in with what I already know?



Pre-reading Strategy: writing
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Dictation. 2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/dictation
Name: Dictation
Steps: Ask students to draw a picture of something of their choice; their family, a house, their
pet, or another concept that the child is familiar with. Then ask the child to say a sentence or
two about the picture, for example "Our dog is brown." Write the child's words on the bottom
of her picture and read them back to her. As you write, model a clear sound to letter match.
"We read a book about the moon. I'm going to write the word mmmmmmoon. What sound is
at the beginning of moon? What letter makes that sound?" Encourage the child to read the
sentence too.
Strength: The students will further understand what the word they are saying are, nd they will
be able to see the picture as you say it and they will be able to understand what each letter
sounds like.
Weakness: It may take a few tries for the student to understand the point of this exercise and
they may not grasp the point of the lesson.
Example:

Mmmmmoon
What letter does moon start with? _______________







Post-reading Strategy: writing
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Paragraph Hamburger. 2014.
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/paragraph_hamburger
Name: Paragraph Hamburger
Steps:
1. Discuss the three main components of a paragraph, or story.
a. The introduction (top bun)
b. The internal or supporting information (the filling)
c. The conclusion (bottom bun)
2. Ask students to write a topic sentence that clearly indicates what the whole paragraph is going
to be about.
3. Have students compose several supporting sentences that give more information about the
topic.
4. Instruct students on ways to write a concluding sentence that restates the topic sentence.
Strength: Visual learners will be enticed by the structure and how you are portraying the
message to them. They will actually get to see the process and how it is done.
Weaknesses: Not all the students will be visual learners
C:\Users\User\Downloads\parahamburger_1.pdf








During-reading Strategy: writing
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. RAFT.2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/raft
Name: RAFT
Steps:
1. Display a completed RAFT example on the overhead.
2. Describe each of these using simple examples: role, audience, format, and topic. (It may be
helpful to write the elements on chart paper or a bulletin board for future reference).
3. Model how to write responses to the prompts, and discuss the key elements as a class.
Teachers should keep this as simple and concise as possible for younger students.
4. Have students practice responding to prompts individually, or in small groups. At first, it may be
best to have all students react to the same prompt so the class can learn from varied responses.
Strengths: Kids will be able to see how to catch all the details while reading the story and they
will know what to look for.
Weaknesses: This may be too easy for students and bore them in class, which may cause a
distraction.
Example:
R:
A:
F:
T:






Pre-reading Strategy: study skills/test taking
APA Citation:
Reading Rockets. Concept Sort. 2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/concept_sort
Name: Concept Sort
Steps:
1. If your goal is to teach a concept such as rough/smooth, gather 10-15 objects or pictures that
have rough and smooth textures. Or, if your goal is to teach a concept or vocabulary that is
presented in a book, choose 10-15 relevant, important words from the book.
2. Working individually, in small groups or as a class, have the students sort the cards or objects
into meaningful groups. The groups (or categories) can be pre-defined by the teacher (often
called a closed sort) or by the students (often called an open sort).
3. Discuss the categories used within the different groups. Describe why certain cards were placed
within certain groups.
Strength: The students will be able to connect with one another and get ideas for remembering
the material when working in small groups.
Weakness: Not all students will want to work in groups and may not retain anything from the
lesson.
Example:
1. Introduce and discuss the following pre-selected terms:
flowers leaves water gardens
weeds forests air trees
sunlight soil roots stems
2. Then, ask students to sort the terms according to the following categories OR ask the students
to sort the cards in a way that is meaningful to them and follow up to check their understanding
of the concepts.
o Types of plants
o Parts of a plant
o Where plants grow
o What plants need to grow

During-reading Strategy: study skills
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Story Maps. 2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/story_maps
Name: Story Maps
Steps:
1. Discuss the main components of a story (e.g., characters, setting, plot and theme OR beginning,
middle, end).
2. Provide each student with a blank story map organizer and model how to complete it.
3. As students read, have them complete the story map. After reading, they should fill in any
missing parts.
Strength: This will improve the students comprehension of a story and will help them identify
the elements of a story.
Weakness: Not all students will be able to take from this and they will not be able to connect
with the strategy.











Example:
Story Map
Title: ____________________________ Author: _______________________





















Beginning
Middle
End
Post-reading Strategy: study skills
APA Citation:
Reading Rocket. Summarizing. 2014. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/summarizing
Name: Summarizing
Steps:
1. Begin by reading OR have students listen to the text selection.
2. Ask students the following framework questions:
1. What are the main ideas?
2. What are the crucial details necessary for supporting the ideas?
3. What information is irrelevant or unnecessary?
3. Have them use key words or phrases to identify the main points from the text.
Strength: Students will walk away know how to take important information from the story
and use that to help them understand the story, instead of taking in all the pointless
information as well.
Weakness: Not all students will be able to comprehend what the story is really trying to say
and they may take all the information as important to them.
Example:
C:\Users\User\Downloads\sumitup.pdf