Two Strategies for Actively Interacting with Reading Material

To many, the concept of being an active reader is foreign When I learned to read, we merely read what we were given, often having no idea what we had really read. Today, our youths are being advanced faster than ever when it comes to reading material. The cornerstone of all education is reading, so it is becoming ever more important to just not read for the sake of reading, but to actually comprehend what one reads as they go along in the text. Listed are a couple of strategies that I often teach my students that help them to actively interact with what they are reading. An additional benefit of these reading strategies is that they keep you more alert to what you are reading, as you are doing something with what you read.

The first strategy that I teach my students is called X Marks the Spot. The secret to this strategy is that it gives the student a concrete symbol to represent his or her thinking as he reads. The first few times my students learned this strategy I modeled it ans walked them through the use of it. This is how it works. Each student will need sticky notes. A beforehand agreed upon symbol system is used. X generally means a key point in the reading material, ? means I don't understand it, * means a new word I am not familiar with, and ! generally means I understand this point. Before the students practice this technique, i write the agreed upon symbols on the board and their meanings. As they students read, they are instructed to stop at key points to use the symbols. After a bit of practice, my students loved this strategy and it became habit. I found that their comprehension increased.