Reading strategies for fiction
5 strategies to make reading a novel easy
Reading a novel seems somewhat self-explanatory. Start reading at one cover and don’t stop until you get to the other.
But the world’s most successful students know that reading a novel is a unique type of reading. Just as there are important keys for reading any type of literary genre (check out our tips on reading a textbook), reading a novel is no different. It’s a specific type of literature with specific things to which you need to pay attention.
Consider these tips to reading a novel effectively:
1. Read for comprehension
This is always the goal when we read anything. Hopefully that’s your goal right now – to understand what I’m writing.
As fundamental as that seems to education, don’t ignore it. It’s easy to get mentally distracted, breeze through a page or two, and suddenly find yourself in a new scene with new characters and no idea how you got there.
If you find that you have no idea what is going on, it’s always a good idea to back up and figure out what you’re reading. An even better idea (though a difficult one) when reading a novel is to comprehend it as you go. For a quick tip on that, try reading with an index card covering the part you’ve already read. It tends to help you stay more engaged as you read.
2. Pay attention to repetition
Novelists are typically extremely detail oriented when writing their novels. When they repeat something, they meant to. When you are reading a novel and certain things show up again, pay attention to that repetition.
And repetition can take a thousand forms. This can be certain settings, certain thematic elements, certain characters, certain moods, certain descriptions, or way too many other things to mention. If you suddenly get deja vu when reading, though, heads up. The author wants to make a point.
3. Read with themes in mind
Themes are some of the most important elements to note when reading a novel.
Think about the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. It’s a great book.
If you haven’t read it, you should. It’s an easy read, and it makes a fantastic point. It’s about animals on a farm.
Only the real point has nothing to do with animals on a farm.
The themes of corruption and totalitarianism are thicker than North Carolina bacon – which is thick. In fact, the point of the novel has nothing to do with pigs and chickens and goats. But if you miss those themes, you might begin to think that it is.
So what’s the answer? Read a novel with themes in mind.
4. Know your literary elements
Plot, setting, characters, foreshadowing, imagery, etc., etc., etc.
These aren’t just “etc.’s.” They’re highly important.
We understand that knowing all the major literary elements can be somewhat less-than-fun. But they’re the building blocks upon which novelists make their points. Big ideas come in story format, so knowing how story elements work together is vital.
5. Watch for interpretations when reading a novel
Sometimes novelists toss you an easy one: they interpret a passage for you.
When you’re reading a novel and you come across any interpretation by an author, it’s time to take notes.
Make sure you don’t miss this. If you want to know how to read a novel effectively and you miss this, it will be easy to misinterpret the entire book. Don’t miss the author’s own interpretations. Honestly, they matter much more than mine or yours do.
Do you have any other tips that you’ve found helpful? We’d love to hear any study skills tips you’ve found helpful when reading a novel.
Filed Under: blog Tagged With: how to read a novel for english class, reading a novel, reading a novel is an example of, reading a novel is skimming, reading a novel is skimming or
Skylar Anderson
Skylar passionate about equipping students to succeed & fulfill their personal missions. He lives in Denver, Colorado, and you'll find him making chili or enjoying the mountains with his family on the weekends. Twitter: @skylaranderson
42 Reading Strategies for Fiction
Page 310 from Writers Express
Help your students prepare to read by leading them through the previewing tips on this page and the next.
Recommend that they use these tips before they read long or complicated texts. Also, let students know that these previewing questions can help them check their understanding during and after their reading.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 311 from Writers Express
After discussing the previewing strategies for short stories and novels, your students are ready to begin reading.
Review the first tip for reading. Download and distribute the reading fiction checklist and ask students to consult it and write down answers as they read.
If they own a copy of the piece of fiction, they can annotate it as they read.
Downloads:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
Form:
Story
Theme:
FriendsFamilyAnimalsMoney
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 312 from Writers Express
During Reading (Continued)
Lead your students through the strategies for active reading. Point out that these strategies will help them fully understand the fiction they read.
Demonstrate how to use some of the strategies with a reading of your choice. Then have students practice the strategies with the sample short story in the coming pages.
Download the checklist from the previous page to equip your students with the questions they can use to visualize scenes.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 313 from Writers Express
Sample Short Story
Provide time for students to read the sample short story on this page. Tell students to answer the questions on the reading fiction checklist (the download from previous pages).
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
Form:
Story
Theme:
FriendsFamilyAnimalsMoney
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 314 from Writers Express
Sample Short Story (Continued)
Discuss the side notes with your class.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.
1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
Form:
Story
Theme:
FriendsFamilyAnimalsMoney
21st Century Skills:
Reading to LearnReading
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 315 from Writers Express
Sample Short Story (Continued)
Discuss the side notes with your class.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
Form:
Story
Theme:
FriendsFamilyAnimalsMoney
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 316 from Writers Express
Sample Short Story (Continued)
Finish your review of the short story and side notes.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
Form:
Story
Theme:
FriendsFamilyAnimalsMoney
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 317 from Writers Express
Download and distribute the reflecting on fiction checklist. Have students answer the questions.
Download and distribute the plot diagram sheet. Have students fill in the parts for the short story they just read. Then ask students to identify the six parts of a favorite book, movie, or television show.
Downloads:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.1
TEKS Standard:
110.6.b.8
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.d, LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 318 from Writers Express
After Reading (Continued)
Help students take a closer look at characters by reviewing the character map and character development chart. Templates of both graphics are available as downloads with this page.
Downloads:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.4.RL.1.3
TEKS Standard:
110.
6.b.8.B
NE ELA Standard:
LA 4.1.6.b
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 319 from Writers Express
After Reading (Continued)
A fiction organizer can help your students record all the key parts of a book or story. It brings everything students learned in the other steps together, so if your class did the other steps, you might have them skip this organizer.
As an alternative, you could use this organizer instead of the other steps. Lead your class through each part, and then have them fill in a chart for their next reading assignment.
A fiction organizer template is available as a download.
Downloads:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.
K12.R.1.1
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Page 320 from Writers Express
After Reading (Continued)
Lead a discussion about rereading. Let your students know that sometimes it is necessary to reread parts or all of a story to understand it well. Other times students might want to reread simply to enjoy favorite parts or to study a special technique used by the author.
Then review the steps of the rereading process and clarify any confusion students might have about it.
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.K12.R.1.1
Level:
Grade 4Grade 5
21st Century Skills:
ReadingReading to Learn
English Language Arts:
Reading
Report on the topic : " Strategies for productive reading " | Literature article (grade 5) on the topic:
REPORT
on the topic:
"Strategies for productive reading.
" Panova O.A.
November 6, 2014
Whoever a modern person is, no matter what kind of activity he chooses, he must always be a reader, not only absorb the content, but also find the necessary information, comprehend and interpret it.
Reading is an integral element of the culture of society, a means of upbringing, education and personal development. Reading influences the formation of emotional-value relations, enriches personal experience and intellect.
School practice confirms that today's teenagers have a low position in reading fiction, interest in literature is noticeably declining. This is largely due to the inability of the student to understand what they read. Literature leaves the reader alone with the book, moreover, it requires intellectual efforts from him, since reading is creativity, speech work, an active process based on the life experience and spiritual sphere of the reader, on the work of his imagination and memory, thoughts and feelings.
Thus, reading is a universal technique for obtaining knowledge in modern society, and understanding a text is a cognitive activity to establish its meaning based on the reader's experience.
The federal state educational standard for basic general education, along with others, sets the task of developing reading and working with text skills. In the modern world, the number of information flows and the volume of information itself are increasing. All this creates objective difficulties in the selection, understanding, storage and transmission of information. That is why there is a need for purposeful formation of productive reading and text processing skills at all levels of schooling.
In the concept of universal educational activities, along with other cognitive universal activities, activities of productive reading are highlighted, related to understanding the purpose of reading and choosing the type of reading depending on the communicative task and determining the main and secondary information, with the formulation of the problem and the main idea of the text.
If we look at reading as a process, we can distinguish three main phases in it: the first is the perception of the text, the disclosure of its content and meaning, a kind of decoding, when a common content is formed from individual words, phrases, sentences. The second is the extraction of meaning, the explanation of the facts found by using existing knowledge, the interpretation of the text. The third is the creation of one's own new meaning, that is, the "appropriation" of the acquired new knowledge as one's own as a result of reflection. In response to what is read, the reader has his own feelings, thoughts, images.
If you ask a modern schoolboy if he can read, then this question will cause him bewilderment: who can't read?! But you can read in different ways. You can stop at the first phase of reading - reproductive - mechanical reproduction of content, retelling of facts, plot. The selection of factual information is used in viewing reading, but it does not meet the requirements for meta-subject results laid down in the new standard.
The second and third phases of reading are semantic productive reading, where subtextual and conceptual information is extracted from the text. Subtext involves reading into the details (which in fact is already a text analysis). Each text has its own questions, key details, “special” words, a certain word order, intonation. You need to learn to “see” them, establish a connection between them and understand the meaning of this connection.
In the School 2100 educational system, there is a single text reading technology for all lessons.
Stage I. Work with text before reading.
1. Anticipation (anticipation, anticipation of the forthcoming reading). Determining the semantic, thematic, emotional orientation of the text, highlighting its heroes by the title of the work, the name of the author, key words, illustrations preceding the text based on the reader's experience.
2. Setting the objectives of the lesson, taking into account the readiness of students to work.
Stage II. Working with text while reading
1. Primary reading of the text. Independent reading in class or reading-listening, or combined reading.
2. Rereading the text. Slow "thoughtful" repeated reading (of the entire text or its individual fragments).
3. Text analysis (techniques: dialogue with the author through the text, commented reading, conversation on what has been read, highlighting key words). Statement of a clarifying question for each semantic part.
4. Conversation on the content of the text. Summary of what has been read.
Stage III. Working with the text after reading
1. Conceptual (semantic) conversation on the text. Collective discussion of the read, discussion.
2. Acquaintance with the writer. Talk about the personality of the writer. Working with textbook materials, additional sources.
3. Work with the title, illustrations.
4. Creative tasks based on any area of the students' reading activity (emotions, imagination, comprehension of content).
Reliance on technology does not mean that text lessons should be uniform in structure and organization.
To work with the test at each stage, the reader chooses his own strategies. Learning strategies are a set of actions that a learner takes in order to facilitate learning, make it more efficient, effective, faster, more enjoyable, aim and bring learning activities closer to their own goals. In case of success, the student remembers the ways of his action, operations, resources used, transfers the strategy to other situations, makes it universal.
Thus, a strategy (in learning) is primarily a systematic plan, a program of actions and operations, consciously applied to manage learning in order to improve it.
Strategies for pre-text activities.
The purpose of pre-text strategies is to set the goal and objectives of reading, actualization or familiarization with important concepts, terms, key words. Forecasting and formulating a new topic by the student himself highlights the area unknown to the student.
The revealed lack of knowledge awakens the desire to learn new things, to move from ignorance to knowledge, from inability to skill. Having a predicted result of the activity in the lesson, students at the end of the work get the opportunity to independently sum up the lesson, evaluate their activities and realize their creative abilities.
With the help of anticipation — guesswork, mental anticipation of the content and the plan of the subsequent presentation — the student runs his thoughts ahead. He not only understands what the author is talking about in the text being read at the moment, but also assumes, guesses - according to the logic of the development of the author's thought - what he should say after this. The reader becomes a kind of collaborator. He himself "continues" the author's text, he mentally "writes" the continuation.
Strategies for pre-text activity are a fairly new phenomenon in the teacher's work. Their appearance is associated with a change in pedagogical concepts for teaching reading.
From the standpoint of awakening interest in reading, researchers note the following most productive pre-text strategies:
Brainstorming.
"Glossary".
"Landmarks of anticipation".
Question battery.
Preliminary questions.
"Dissection of the issue."
“Round table alphabet”
“Competing with a writer”.
Brainstorming
The aim of the strategy is to update prior knowledge and experience relevant to the topic of the text.
Progress:
Today we will read and discuss the topic… What associations do you have about the announced topic?
The teacher writes down all the named associations.
Now let's read the text and see if the information you gave in the Brainstorm is adequate to what we learned from the text.
"Glossary"
The goal of the strategy is to update and repeat the vocabulary related to the topic of the text.
Progress:
We will read the informational text "History of Numbers".
Maths.
Look at the list of words and check those that might be related to the text.
When you have finished reading the text, go back to these words and look at their meaning and the use of words used in the text.
“Cutting the question”
The goal of the strategy is a semantic guess about the possible content of the text based on its title.
Progress:
Read the title of the text and divide it into semantic groups. What do you think the text will be about?
Atmosphere: structure, meaning, study. Geography.
Cereals are the bread of mankind. Biology.
Traces in time. Literature.
"Round Table Alphabet"
We plan to read and discuss the topic of the relationship between man and animals, man and nature. On the alphabet map provided to you, write the titles or authors of books that are related to this topic. The discussion of the results takes place according to the method of free discussion.
"We compete with the writer.
"
Purpose: to motivate a person to read a book. Try to predict the content of the book by looking at the illustrations. One student offers his own version of the plot of the book, the rest supplement it.
Strategies for textual activity
The purpose of strategies in the executive phase of reading is the development of its mechanisms, that is, putting forward a hypothesis about the content of what is being read, its confirmation / rejection, reflection during reading about what and how I read and how well I understand what I read. The main principle of the strategies of this stage is to stop the activity, think aloud, forecast, establish various and multidirectional connections and relationships in the course of plot development. The teacher intervenes in the student's reading process in order to help, provide additional information and simply educate.
Purpose: understanding the text and creating its reader's interpretation.
Strategies
"Reading in a circle" (alternate reading).
"Reading to yourself with questions."
"Reading to yourself with stops."
"Reading to yourself with notes."
"Reading in a circle"
Progress:
We begin to read the text in paragraphs in turn. Our task is to read with understanding, the task of the listeners is to ask the reader questions to check whether he understands the text being read. We have only one copy of the text, which we pass on to the next reader.
Listeners ask questions about the content of the text, the reader answers. If his answer is incorrect or inaccurate, the listeners correct him.
“Reading to yourself with questions”
The purpose of the strategy: to teach you to read the text thoughtfully, asking yourself more and more complicated questions, to conduct a “dialogue with the author”.
"Reading to yourself with stops"
Purpose: to control the process of understanding the text while reading.
Progress:
We will read the text with stops during which you will be asked questions.
Some of them are aimed at testing understanding, others - at predicting the content of the next passage.
“Reading to yourself with notes”
This strategy is most often used to work with complex scientific texts. Its purpose is to monitor the understanding of the text being read and its critical analysis. The reader makes notes in the margins. The nature of the notes is determined by the purpose of reading.
Strategies for post-text activities
The purpose of strategies for post-text activities is the application, use of material in a variety of situations, forms, areas, including it in another, larger-scale activity. Strategies are associated with the assimilation, expansion, deepening, discussion of what has been read, and the reader's interpretation is corrected by the author's meaning.
Strategies for post-text activities
"Relationship between question and answer"
"Questions after the text"
"Time out"
"Checklist".
"Relationship between question and answer"
The answer to a question can be in the text or in the reader's head. If the answer is in the text, it can be in one sentence or in several parts of it. In case 1, in order to answer the question, it is necessary to find the exact answer in one sentence of the text, if it is contained in several parts of the text, such an answer must be formulated by connecting them.
If the answer is in the reader's head, then in one case the reader constructs it by connecting what the author says between the lines or indirectly with the reader's own interpretation of the author's words. In another case, the answer is outside the text and the reader is looking for it in his knowledge.
"Questions after the text"
- factual (factual) information of the text stated verbally;
- subtext information hidden between lines, in subtext;
-conceptual information, often located outside the text and related to its use.
- evaluative, reflective questions related to the critical analysis of the text.
"Time-out"
Purpose: self-test and assessment of understanding of the text by discussing it in pairs and in a group.
So, teaching reading strategies develops the ability to interact with the text, to reflect on what is being read and what has been read; it includes comprehension training procedures where the reader analyzes how he understands the content of the text and how to work with it.
Currently, the view of what a school graduate should be is changing dramatically. Modern realities require that he not only possess the amount of knowledge on the subject, but also successfully use them in a variety of situations. He knew how and wanted to learn all his life. A creative person must have a tool for self-education, self-education. Own the techniques of analysis, synthesis, be able to draw conclusions, reason. All this can give a person Reading
References
E.
V. Buneeva, O.V. Chindilova. Technology for working with text in elementary school and grades 5-6 (technology for forming the type of correct reading activity) HYPERLINK "http://www.school2100.ru/izdaniya/books/files/tehnologiya_produkt_chteniya.pdf" http://www.school2100. ru/izdaniya/books/files/tehnologiya_produkt_chteniya.pdf
Educational technologies. Collection of materials. - M.: Balass, 2008. - 160 p. (Educational system "School 2100"). 9/N.N. Smetannikov. - M. : Balass, 2012. - 128 p. (Educational system "School 2100").
Effective strategies for working with text in the classroom at school
The ultimate goal of teaching Russian is practical literacy and language competence. The basis of the content of literature as an academic subject is reading and textual study of works of art.
Work with text as the main didactic unit allows students to combine the activities of developing practical skills of literate writing and speech development.
Every teacher dreams that all students come to the lesson prepared: they have completely read this or that work or paragraph. And not just read, but understood the meaning of the text read. During the final certification, the graduate must also understand the meaning of the read text. Whether it is a task to the text or the text itself.
Teachers working in grades 9 and 11 know that most mistakes are made due to misunderstanding of what is read, as well as when reading the assignment itself.
Teaching a child to read “correctly”, “effectively”, “productively” is an important task for a teacher. That is why the technology of productive reading (PRT), developed by Professor N. Svetlovskaya, acquires a leading role and contributes to the achievement of the results that are mentioned in the new standards.
The technology is universal and can be used in lessons of any cycle.
It is aimed at the formation of all universal educational activities: cognitive, communicative, regulatory, personal.
The technology of productive reading differs sharply from the traditional technology of transferring ready-made knowledge to a student. The teacher organizes the children's research work in such a way that they themselves "think" about solving the key problem of the lesson and can themselves explain how to act in new conditions. The teacher becomes a partner, a mentor, an observer.
The developed technology includes three stages of working with text, a three-stage process.
The purpose of is the development of anticipation (the ability to guess, predict the content of the text). Task - to develop motivation for reading the text
1. Strategy "Forecast by headline".
Task: think about what can be discussed in the story of K.G. Paustovsky "Warm bread", in the work of P.P. Bazhov "Mistress of the Copper Mountain", etc.
– Try to predict the content by the first line of the story…Remember the name of the story….
Does the content of the story match the title?
Give examples of such discrepancies.
Associative bush (circle, row). Today we will read and discuss the topic… What associations do you have about the stated topic?
2. Strategy "Brainstorm" ("Basket of ideas").
Task: answer the questions before reading the text (fairy tales "Warm Bread") - What do you know about K. G. Paustovsky? What do you think the story will be about? Who can be the main character? What event in the story can be described.
3. Strategy "Image of the text".
Task: check your assumptions. Based on the words taken from the text, try to make a short plot story. The title of the story is given.
4. Strategy "Battery of questions".
Task: make up questions to the text according to the title, according to the illustrations.
5.
Glossary strategy.
Task: look at the list of words and mark those that can be related to the text. When you finish reading the text, go back to these words and look at their meaning and the use of words used in the text.
6. "Competing with the writer" strategy.
Task: try to predict the content of the book by looking at the illustrations. One student offers his version, the rest complete it.
7. Strategy "True and False Statements".
8. Strategy I know, I want to know, I found out.
Stage 2 - stage of text activity.
The purpose of is to understand the text and create its reader's interpretation, summarizing a part of the read text, asking questions of a general nature, making assumptions about the further development of the plot and the role of characters in the composition of the text, etc.).
The main task of is to ensure the full perception of the text.
The main strategies at the stage of text activity are dialogue with the author, commented reading.
1. Strategy "Reading in a circle". The text is read in turn (each "circle member" reads a paragraph). After this, a stop follows: everyone asks questions to the read passage. If the question cannot be answered (it does not correspond to the text), then the question is considered incorrect. * All correct questions can be recorded.
2. Silent reading with questions strategy.
3. Strategy “Reading to yourself with notes. (Insert)" . Marginal notes: + - knew; - - new; ? - interesting; V is unclear. Others are possible: B - question; O - answer; Z - I know; N - new; And - interesting; X - I want to know; C - ask; U to clarify.
4. Strategy "Reading with stops". Reading the text with stops, during which tasks are given in the form of questions: some are aimed at checking understanding, others - at predicting the content of the next passage.
5. "Pose a problem - offer a solution" strategy. Remember what problems the heroes of the work face (the problem is formulated and written down in an oval). Next, the children can name several problems, students are divided into groups and offer all kinds of solutions to problems.
6. Strategy "Creating a question plan". The student conducts a semantic grouping of the text, highlights the strong points, divides the text into semantic parts and titles each part with a key question…….
Stage 3 - the stage of post-text (post-text) activity.
The purpose of is to correct the reader's interpretation in accordance with the author's meaning.
The main task of is to provide in-depth perception and understanding of the text, raise a question to the text as a whole, followed by a conversation, the result of which should be an understanding of the author's meaning. Re-addressing the title, illustrations, performing creative tasks.
2. Question tree strategy Crown – what? where? when? Barrel - why? How? Could you? Roots - how to relate the text to life? With current events? What is the author trying to show?
3. Strategy "Bloom's Cube" (Benjamin Bloom is a famous American teacher, author of many pedagogical strategies = technician).
The beginnings of questions are written on the sides of the cube: “Why?”, “Explain”, “Name”, “Suggest”, “Think up”, “Share”. The teacher or student rolls the die.
It is necessary to formulate a question to the educational material according to the face on which the cube fell.
The “Name” question is aimed at the level of reproduction, i.e. at the simple reproduction of knowledge.
Question "Why" - the student in this case must find cause-and-effect relationships, describe the processes occurring with a certain object or phenomenon.
