To activate prior knowledge 1.

Word association chain around the key word in title/heading or image could add time limit e.g. 60 second challenge. 2. Spot the genre or text type from the cover/title/image used. 3. Fill in a KWL grid What do I already know about this? What do I want to know? Then after reading, What have I learnt? Prediction 4. Discussion about how the text might continue sequence key events. What are the clues that lead to this idea? 5. Multiple choice Who wants to be a millionaire style game with options of how the text might continue. 6. Guess what word/phrase comes next cloze activity. Visualising 7. Students listen carefully to a passage being read to them and draw what they see. They share pictures and then talk about how the author creates those images in the readers mind. 8. Design storyboards for particular passages or key events. 9. Draw pictures of key events/characters and label with key quotations from the text. 10. Freeze frames/tableaux where the students create a silent snapshot of key events.

Summarising 11. Devise a subheading for each paragraph summarising the key message. 12. Highlight the key sentences/words in each paragraph. 13. Reduce the text to five sentences, then five words and then one word. 14. Sequence a list of points from most important to least important. 15. Restructure key information into a different format e.g. spider-diagram, bullet points, flow diagram, labelled picture, time-line. 16. Just a minute students talk on a topic for a minute without repetition, hesitation etc. 17. Write 5 top tips/golden rules for 18. Choose from statements on the board. Which are true and false? Which best summarise the text/chapter/key ideas? Questioning 19. Write questions around the margin of the text questions about the meaning, questions to the author etc. 20.Hot-seat the author/character. 21. Pairs/groups devise questions to test other pairs/groups. 22.Give students the answers what are the questions? Structural Analysis 23.Text sequencing reconstructing a text which has been cut into chunks. 24.Narrative map/flow diagram of events/ideas in a text. 25.Graphs to show the narrative structure of a key episode/chapter and the changing levels of humour, tension or drama. 26.Log the structure onto a grid e.g point/evidence grid, cause/effect grid, argument/counter-argument.

Character Analysis 27.Tension/emotion graph- the vertical axis is a continuum of emotions e.g. from irritated to in a rage, or fearful to excited. The horizontal axis details key points in the text and the students plot the graph to chart the change in emotions/tension. 28.Hot seating a character. 29.Character on trial summing up speech for or against. 30.Write a magazine profile of a character. 31. Stop at a point where a character faces a problem or dilemma. List alternative courses of action and the motivation behind and consequences of each. Read on to find out what the character does do considering his/her motivation and what will happen as a result. 32.Find evidence to show how the author is creating bias either for or against a character. 33.Draw the character and label picture with key words and phrases from the text. 34.Write thought bubbles for characters at key moments in the text when they dont speak or perhaps dont say what theyre really thinking. This can also be done dramatically as thought tracking one person reads what the character says and another says what they might actually be thinking. 35.Re-tell a scene from the viewpoint of another character. 36.Rank characters according to a given criteria e.g. most powerful to least powerful, kindest to meanest. 37.Create a relationship grid with characters listed along the top and down the side. Each cell represents a relationship to be explored. 38.In an outline character shape, record all the different roles a character adopts in the text e.g. friend, son, villain. What insights does this offer?

Thematic Analysis 39.Interview the author for a TV/radio programme. 40.Draw a picture to illustrate each of the key themes/ideas and write key quotations around it. 41. Key quotation hunt state the theme/idea and challenge the students to find a set number of quotations about it. 42.Top Theme Tangle discuss which is the most important theme and why. 43.Write a blurb for the book. 44.Explain a moral or key message gained from the text. Relating texts to personal experiences 45.What would you do at certain points in the story? 46.Choose the most interesting/surprising/entertaining moment/fact and explain the reason for the choice. 47.Relate text to other things they have read and/or their own experiences. Language work 48.Students keep a personal vocabulary book as they read they mark or note on post-its any words they are unsure of. After reading the group discusses the meaning of unfamiliar words and they are added to the vocabulary book along with a visual clue to remind them of the meaning. 49.Highlight the key language features in the text e.g. adjectives in a persuasive leaflet, emotive language in a charity appeal, imperatives in a recipe. 50.Re-write part of the text in another genre e.g. from persuasive to informative.