Is That Your Final

Answer? Before,
During, and After
Reading Strategies
to Improve
Comprehension
and Master
Standardized Tests
Georgina Castilleja
Houston Independent School District

I dont get it.

What dont you get?
It.
What?
It.

Okay, by now I should know that conversations

like this one go nowhere. Yet, time after time in
my early years of teaching, Id have these frustrating conversations with students in my 8thgrade reading class. In my typical intervention,
my next response would be, Lets read it again.
Isnt that the definition of insanity? Lets do the
same thing, the same way, and expect things to
change? Clearly, this approach was not likely

to benefit my students. I finally realized that in

order to help my students get what they were
reading, I needed to give them direct and specific instruction on how to get it.
I began thinking about my school years (they
say you teach how you were taught), but I didnt
find much inspiration. My teachers said Read
this and answer the questions. We worked independently out of sets of classroom books or photocopied short stories which meant we could not
write on the text. This lack of interaction with
the text, the teacher, and each other did not
strengthen our skills or make us lifelong readers.
Instead, it created hesitant, unmotivated readers
who only did enough to get by. Research (Allen
& Landaker, 2005; Robb, 2000) and my own
classroom experience convinced me that getting
it happens in three phases: (1) before, (2)during,
and (3) after reading. I put this three-phase
approach into operation in my classroom, and
it really helped my students get itnot only
in terms of comprehension but also in terms of
standardized test performance.
Later, when I became an instructional coach,
I assumed all teachers had gone through the same
process and that reading instruction was common
sense. I soon understood Voltaire (1824) when
he said that common sense was not so common
(p. 242). When I asked teachers how they taught
reading and prepared students for state tests, many
described my own middle school classrooms. I
decided to share with teachers both the data from
my years in the classroom and the research that supported my methods. These were my suggestions.

Before Reading

Get Rid of Distractions

The first step is simple yet necessary. Have the
kids clear their desks of everything except the
pages of the selection (duplicated so that the
students can write on them). Remind the class
not to start out by worrying about how many
questions have to be answered at the end. I

Is That Your Final Answer? Before, During, and After Reading Strategies

23

always explain this to kids as a mind trickout

of sight, out of mind. Our brains tend to get
overwhelmed by upcoming tasks, and students
often lose motivation simply by seeing the long
list of questions they will soon encounter.

Highlight or Underline Title, Subtitles, and

Captions
Many times, students dont even read these
important text features, but they could help students uncover the main idea or key concepts and
organizational clues in the text. By making them
stand out via highlighting or underlining, we have
made sure that students read them at least once.

Make a Prediction
Using the text features, students should write a prediction of what they think the text will be about.
Ideally, the prediction is written next to the title so
that students can get used to making predictions and
the teacher can easily check to see if they have done
so. According to Lapp, Fisher, and Grant (2008),
Predicting and using titles and graphics provides
focus and motivation to read further (p. 373).

During Reading

24

good readers use (p. 73). Furthermore, readers

are more likely to interact with the text because
they must engage the content if they are paraphrasing (p. 73). A student should be able to read
the text and, at the least, retell what has happened.
Paraphrasing is a bit more challenging because
students must use their own words: Translating
the texts language into [their] own helps monitor
and increase comprehension as well as connect
with their own prior knowledge (pp. 73, 75).
If students look up from the page and are
unable to annotate the text, they are thereby
given a clue that they did not comprehend, and
they must apply a fix-up strategy. Without this
routine, many students tend to continue reading
without ever assessing their own comprehension.
With enough practice, a student can identify the
main idea and write it in the margin.
As students continue, their annotations are not
limited to the main idea but can also reflect the
higher-order thinking skills usually practiced by
good readers. Tovani (2004) states, If I want readers to reuse and remember the information they
read, I have to help them learn how to mark text
(p. 5). By guiding students to write their questions,
predictions, reactions, and connections to the text
on the text, we help them learn how to hold their
thinking (p. 17) so they can use it later.

Mark and Annotate the Text

Underline and Define Vocabulary on the Spot

Students are often told to underline or highlight parts that stand out. These are vague
instructions; teachers must explicitly teach
students what kinds of things to look for and
highlight to set a purpose for reading. Tovani
(2004) explains that merely underlining text
is not enough. Thinking about the text must
accompany the underlining (p. 69).
Students can make this thinking visible by
annotating. Annotations can be either a paraphrasing of the paragraph(s), identification of the main
idea of the paragraph(s), and/or student questions or reactions. According to Kletzien (2009),
paraphrasing has been identified as a strategy that

It is obvious that in a test if a word is underlined,

a student will be asked in one way or another to
define it. Because many words have multiple meanings, students must define the word as soon as they
encounter it. This is so that the right definition
is used, based on the context in which the word
is used. According to Vacca and Vacca (2007),
vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to text
comprehension, and good readers try to determine meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts
in the text (pp.16, 17). Students should use context clues to infer the meanings of new words, and
their definitions should be written in the margin so
the students can refer to their notes when asked.

Illinois Reading Council Journal

Vol. 40, No. 1

Winter 2011-2012

After Reading (Focus on the Assessment of

Reading)

Circle Key Words in the Question and

Make a Note of What Is Being Asked
According to Harvey and Goudvis (2007), reading tests have predictable kinds of questions, and
each type requires a unique approach (p. 247).
By identifying the question type and the key
words on which to focus, students know what to
look for and what type of response is needed.
In their chapter, The Genre of Test Reading,
Harvey and Goudvis (2007) suggest the strategy of
having students learn the test-question vocabulary. For this, teachers should model and share
different types of questions that are found in test
items, and make sure that kids understand the difference and what each one is asking them to do
(p. 244). Robert E. Glenn (2004) explains that
students should be taught to look for key words
in questions that could offer advice and help to
answer the question (p. 62). To him, teaching practical test-taking strategies, such as this one, helps
students improve their odds when taking tests and
help[s] them achieve higher scores (p. 61).

Prove Correct Answer

While answering questions, students must
know to eliminate the answers which are obviously wrong (Glenn, 2004, p. 63). Once students have chosen an answer, they are not done.
Students must find proof for their answers
and write the paragraph number of where the
answer was found next to the question. Harvey
and Goudvis (2007) suggest teaching students
to explain and justify their answers (p. 243).
I have seen that when students are asked to
prove and defend why their answer is correct and
tell where they got it from, they tend to look back
at the passage carefully and find evidence. When
they are not asked to justify their answer, students often rely on memory and personal opinions rather than the text and their annotations

to help answer questions. Sometimes teachers

can challenge students by removing the multiple
choices from certain questions. This way the
students must come up with their own answers.
Later, they can compare their answers with the
choices provided by the test makers.

How Do I Teach This?

After learning what needed to be taught, the
question turned to how do I teach it? We cant
simply write it down and tell kids to do it. Nor
can we give them a textbook and say, Answer
the questions in the back, never allowing them
to truly interact with the text. The instruction
needs to be detailed and explicit enough for students to internalize and practice the strategies.
The reading practice has to consist of a combination of modeling and think-alouds. Though this
combination of strategies seems natural to some,
Walker (2005) explains that many teachers have
difficulty modeling this complex process (p. 688).
Many teachers tend to believe that students can
read for comprehension by following a worksheet
or listening to directions. Telling students strategies
for reading is not sufficient support. They must be
taught explicitly. Students need to hear and experience what a good reader does while reading.
Comprehension is not an overt process but rather
an inner self-dialogue about meaning. Thinking aloud makes this internal process observable
(p.688). Who better to model the reading process
than the reading teacher?
Vacca and Vacca (2007) describe thinkalouds as models in which teachers make their
thinking explicit by verbalizing their thoughts
while reading orally (p. 47). According to
McKeown and Gentilucci (2007), think-alouds
also assist students in monitoring comprehension and implementing fix-up strategies when
comprehension breaks down (p. 136).
According to Lapp et al. (2008), there are
four dimensions of think-alouds: vocabulary,
comprehension, text-structures, and text features (p. 380). These dimensions cover all of the

Is That Your Final Answer? Before, During, and After Reading Strategies

25

sections of before, during, and after reading. When

modeling through a think-aloud, there is explicit
practice in decoding new words, paraphrasing the
reading, comprehending major points of the text,
and implementing fix-up strategies. If the teacher
models the reading steps using think-aloud methods, students can practice the reading strategies
and make the process observable through their
notes. The annotation step is what McKeown and
Gentilucci (2007) would call a sort of internalized think-aloud where students have a running
dialect with the text (p. 139).
As I modeled the strategies to teachers, I
explained that think-alouds cannot be scripted,
so what they say may vary from class to class. I
stressed that the purpose is to model the mental
acrobatics of effective reading strategies and to
help students have tools for tackling tests. I also
emphasized what Rupley, Blair, and Nichols
(2009) state about direct and explicit instructionthat it includes explaining to students why
the new skill or cognitive strategy is important
and useful, eliciting student interest, providing
step-by-step explanations, modeling, and engaging
in guiding practice (p. 126). Students must then
have ample practice before they can be expected
to internalize something and automatically use it.
Implementation of these strategies requires
more than just one lesson/modeling of how to
use the steps. As mentioned previously, teachers
need to supply students with their own copies of
text so that they may interact freely with it. These
strategies help them hold their thinking about
the reading, but they are impossible to follow if
they cannot underline and mark the text.
These strategies helped my students improve
and be successful on their yearly reading tests,
and I saw other teachers become successful implementing these strategies with their students. Their
scores increased dramatically after adopting the
strategies and using think-alouds to teach.
After years of using the strategies myself, I occasionally still have students tell me they didnt get
it. The difference now is that we would be able to
dive back into the text and look at the markings

26

Illinois Reading Council Journal

Vol. 40, No. 1

and annotations to see where his or her thinking

got off track. I can now use the students own work
as an instructional tool to make a better reader.

References
Allen, J., & Landaker, C. (2005). Reading history: A practical guide to improving literacy. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Glenn, R. E. (2004). Teach kids test-taking tactics. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick
Review, 70(2), 61-63.
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work:
Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Kletzien, S. B. (2009). Paraphrasing: An effective comprehension strategy. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 73-77.
Lapp, D., Fisher, D., & Grant, M. (2008). You can read
this textIll show you how: Interactive comprehension instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,
51(5), 372-383.
McKeown, R. G., & Gentilucci, J. L. (2007). Thinkaloud strategy: Metacognitive development and monitoring comprehension in the middle school secondlanguage classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy, 51(2), 136-147.
Robb, L. (2000). Teaching reading in middle school.
NewYork: Scholastic Professional Books.
Rupley, W. H., Blair, T. R., & Nichols, W. D. (2009).
Effective reading instruction for struggling readers:
The role of direct/explicit teaching. Reading & Writing
Quarterly, 25, 125-138.
Tovani, C. (2004). Do I really have to teach reading? Content
comprehension, grades 6-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Vacca, R. T., & Vacca, J. L. (2007). Content area reading literacy and learning across the curriculum (9thed.).
Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Voltaire. (1824). A philosophical dictionary (Vol. II).
London: C. H. Reynell, Broad-Street, Golden-Square.
Walker, B. J. (2005). Thinking aloud: Struggling readers
often require more than a model. The Reading Teacher,
58(7), 688-692.

About the Author

Georgina Castilleja is a literacy instructional specialist
for the Houston Independent School District. She has a
Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Reading Language Arts. Ms.Castillejahas experience teaching English,Reading/Language Arts, and English
as a Second Language (ESL)at the middle and high school
levels.

Winter 2011-2012

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