Stage 1: Pre-reading

The pre-reading process when learning to read is an important stage that is often bypassed. Predicting, or exploring the books illustrations gives students some background on what they are about to read. A great strategy that can be used at every age level is the SQ4R strategy mentioned on page 147. Students survey, question, read, recite, review, and reflect to remember information. These steps can be beneficial for first graders reading a story book, up to grade twelves who are studying their biology text book.

Stage 2: Reading

When teaching students to read it is important to help students find a book that is age appropriate, but also interesting to them. A strategy for helping students find the perfect book is readers workshops (p.146). This is similar to book cafe which we did in our PS1. Students or the teacher bring in their favourite books and talk about them briefly with the class. This will help expose books to students that they would not have normally found on their own.

Stage 3: Responding

Teaching students to respond to text and develop their comprehension skills is extremely important yet often difficult to achieve. One strategy to encourage students to develop these skills is providing students with reading logs that ask students guiding questions about the text (p. 151). This will encourage students to question the text they are reading, and eventually allow students to develop reading logs on their own without guiding questions.

Stage 4: Exploring

This stage encourages the students to look back at the text and explore it in more depth for further meaning. One strategy to encourage students through this stage is story maps (p. 153). Students will explore the plot, characters, and other story elements. This will also help students when they begin writing stories.