Phoenix Union

Read Like a Reader, Read Like a Writer

An Organized Approach to Strategic Reading

Like many educators, I was attracted to the idea of strategic reading. Prior to learning about the strategic reading movement, I often felt that what I taught kids about reading never addressed the task of reading itself. I realize now that what I had in my teaching repertoire was a set of reading activities, things kids could do after they read something. By contrast, strategic reading gave me things I could teach kids to do while they read, things that would actually help them read better.

Questioning

The Best Reading Strategy to Start With

The first thing I do with a group of readers is get them picking good books. It’s a bit chaotic at first, but after a few days, everyone settles down to some serious reading. Then I start to get nervous. It’s hard enough helping kids figure out what to read, now I have to show them how.

Understanding

Knowing What We Read, and Knowing What to Do When We Don’t

As literate adults who’ve been reading for decades, most of us have a well-tuned sense of what we understand and what we don’t. As we glide along line after line, we know intuitively if what we read makes sense to us, or if certain words or ideas are confusing. And we usually know what to do when we’re confused.

But many kids don’t.

Thinking

This is Your Brain on Text. Any Questions?

“What are you thinking?”

My favorite reading conference question absolutely baffles kids. “What do you mean ‘What am I thinking?’” they say. “I’m reading a book!” Yes, that’s true. But what I want to know is what they’re thinking about what they’re reading. And no, I don’t want them to read it to me. I want them to read their own minds and tell me what’s rattling around in there.

Reading Journal Prompts

Aligning Questions with Key Strategies

I hate giving kids prompts for their reading journals. In my ideal reading world, kids would spontaneously compose entries of such quality and variety that using prompts would seem silly. However, the reading world is far from ideal, and I’ve discovered a way to use journal prompts to introduce kids to valuable reading strategies and useful ways of reflecting on their books.