Reading - Strategies

Thanks again to Sultan and Khadijeh for allowing us to use them for examples. I hope it was clear that even great readers do not read naturally when we leave the world of narrative for the expository. There are a lot of good strategies that we can teach our students that can help them make the transition. First though, a word about modern textbooks: Next time you open up a textbook, pay close attention to the layout of the book - they are now designed to tap into those three elements of reading; activation, anticipation, and visualization. There are pictures in the front of the chapter, usually a few questions like "have you ever...?" all intended to activate schemata and to get readers to begin to anticipate and to visualize. There are often questions at the beginning of a section and then review questions at the end of each. Of course, students long ago seemed to have learned not to read these things, look at charts or graphs, the funny-colored boxes in the margins etc.
The first reading strategy I would like to discuss is the KWL, something you maybe familiar with. If you are, then focus on the connections to our three words! This technique is useful for short readings with one general topic. You can use it for an article, a section of at text, or handouts. To start, you simply take a standard piece of paper and divide it into three equal columns. At the top of the first column you write a "K", at the top of the second column a "W",and at the top of the third an "L". The page serves as a process document, as the reader does different things as she reads. The K stands for "what I know" (or what I think I know, right or wrong), the W stands for "what I want to know" (or what I think I might learn), and the L stands for "what I learned." The reader starts by looking at the title of the reading then begins to think about what she knows about the topic or what it makes her think about. From there, she skims the rest of the reading to get more sense of what it may be about, and what it reminds her of. At that point, she jots down these ideas in the K column. It is important to encourage students to write as much as they can, even things they think or know aren't correct. This will be difficult at first, and they may not write much until they get more comfortable with the process.
Next, she writes a series of questions about what she thinks she might learn when she reads the piece fully, or what she wants to know in the W column. Finally, she reads the material, paying attention to the questions and predictions she had made. After reading, she then writes an outline of what she has learned in the L column, paying attention to the two types of discoveries: the things she thought might be covered or she wanted to know, and the things she didn't expect. The paper becomes a study sheet, and a record of the reader's thought processes - as she does more, there will be more on the paper, and she will internalize the process eventually.
The second strategy is PQ5R (SQ3R is its slimmer cousin), which is an excellent technique for more technical material. I will go through the stages, but in reality, this process becomes intuitive eventually, and strong readers don't really think about the components as being separate. P stands for preview, where the reader skims the material for a general sense of meaning. Q of course is question. The reader then Reads, Recites, Records, Reviews, then Reflects. While reading, he should recite as well. Remember what we said about that inner language (Vygotsky) we use as we learn?  When we record, we could be highlighting and/or annotating. A word about highlighting (or painting as I refer to it) - there is nothing magical about spreading yellow ink over words; the inference in doing so is that you will come back to the material. Also, it is very unwise to highlight as you read, how do you know what is important? I prefer annotating, whether it is underlining or making symbols in the margins. I even prefer to make little lists paragraph by paragraph - everything in the world is enumerated, everything is in a list (causes, examples, effects, components, etc.). For younger readers who cannot write in their textbooks, I provide them post-it notes to use in the books.
Reviewing is simply going back over the material and asking yourself what you comprehended and what you need to continue to work with. Reflecting is different, reflection dictates that you put yourself into the reading. What you think about it, what you agreed with, what you did not agree with, what was consistent with your experiences, what was not, etc. 
I know most of you are familiar with these strategies, but once again, the idea here is to think about them in the context of the theories we have discussed about reading, specifically in terms of activation, anticipation, and visualization. Also, I tend to use PQ5R a bit differently - I like to do the process in each section of a textbook, doing small circles through the text. I work hard with younger readers, talking them through this, hoping to get the language of reading into their heads.  This is the beginning of "metacognition" in my opinion, another topic we will be discussing.
I know these two strategies are a little more advanced than most of our students can cope with initially, but I think a good teacher can adapt them and start reworking the act of reading in their minds.  We will talk more about reading, and I am looking forward to your comments :)