Reading/Teaching Strategies
Teaching Strategies from Michael Opitz handout at WSRA 2006
He refers you Yopp and Yopp 1996 for additional ideas.
Tip: when first introducing student to a new teaching strategy, use a familiar text so that you and the students can focus on the new strategy.
6 Before-reading Teaching strategies.
Anticipation guide – Students read statements before reading the text.
Brainstorming – Students state everything they know about a topic. All responses are accepted.
K-W-L – Students tell everything they think they know and want to know about a
subject. Responses are written.
Literature response logs – Students write predictions or questions they want answered
Previewing - Students read subheads and visuals before reading text.
Picture walk – students look through all pictures in the story.
6 During –Reading Strategies
Cut-part – A story is cut into sections, one section for each class member. Each section
is read in sequence.
Cooperative reading activity (CRA) – Students read a given section of text and come to
an agreement on three important ideas to share with the rest of the class. Each group reads a different section.
Genre study – Students read stories that relate to a given genre.
Text set – Students read stories that relate to a topic. Stories correspond to instructional
reading levels.
Single title, varied mode – All students read the same book but in different ways (e.g.
Teacher assists, partner , tape recorded)
Paired reading – two student read together.
10 After –Reading Teaching Strategies
Class mural – Students create a mural showing the highlights or sequence of the story.
Choral reading – Students read the story or part of the story aloud for the rest of the class.
Comparison/contrast – A Venn diagram is used to show how characters or stories are alike and different.
Drama - Students reenact all or a part of the story.
K-W-L – Students write down what they learned in the learn column of the chart
Literature response logs – Students respond to the story through writing or drawing
Puppet theater – Students create puppets and use them to tell the story.
Readers’ theater – Students take the roles of story characters and read the story in play format.
Retelling - Students retell everything they can recall about the story. This can be done orally or in writing.
Sketch to stretch – Students sketch what the selection meant to them. Others tell what they think the sketch represents.
My response to this list was that it reminded me of things to think about and to vary the different strategies for each reading. However, I had the thought that after-reading strategies sometimes seems like extra work. We feel we have to do the story to death with activities rather than just enjoy and move on. With non-fiction pieces I see a need for application but not with every narrative text. Adults read a book, comprehend and all and when they complete it, it returns to the shelf and is not activated to detesting. Kids could read more (which is a proven strategy for improvement) and enjoy it choosing when they need to do all this after stuff.
