Two Favorite Reading Strategies

1. Sketching My Way Throuh the Text (p. 120)

For this strategy the teacher draws simple pictures or diagrams to help students conceptualize or visualize ideas from their reading. As an English teacher I like this strategy because it can help students visualize character, setting, or the progression of plot in a piece of literature--sometimes all at once. I can think of at least a couple times when I use this strategy with my sophomore American Literature class. When we read the Iroquois creation myth "The World on the Turtle's Back" during our unit on Native American literature, I draw a simple diagram of Iroquois cosmology with sketches of who rules which realms of the universe as described in the myth. I also use this strategy when we read "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe. The setting for most of the short story is a bizarre "castellated abbey" owned by Prince Prospero. The interior design of the castle is an irregular arrangement of seven rooms, each with a different color scheme. The most westward room is all red and black. Near the end of the story a grotesque phantom intrudes on Prince Prospero's party. The Prince accosts it and pursues it through the seven rooms, followed by his guests. In the final room the phantom disappears and Prince Prospero and all his guests drop dead. I illustrate the sequence of events at the end of the story by drawing rough sketches of the interior design of the castle, Prince Prospero and his guests (stick figures) and using arrows to simulate the pursuit and the final scene/image. Finally, the students occasionally use this strategy themselves when we play "Vocab. Pictionary" as a way to review for a vocabulary quiz. The students divide into two teams and players draw pictures of the vocabulary words for their teammates to guess.

2. Double-Entry Journals (p. 118)

In this strategy, students divide their notes in half vertically down the center of the paper. On the left side of the sheet, they take notes on a text as they normally would. (This might include paraphrasing, summary, or simple page and line references.) On the right side of the sheet, they reflect, analyze or interpret their notes from the left side and formulate comments and questions on them. I like this strategy because it can be helpful especially with difficult texts and it promotes metacognitive learning. I use this strategy with my freshman English class when we read Romeo and Juliet. On the left side of the sheet the students copy lines and line numbers from the play that are confusing and wrestle with the meaning of them. I ask them to pay particular attention to figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, etc.). On the right side, they reflect on the lines, questioning the meaning and sometimes challenging the views expressed in them. Then in class the students discuss and revise their notes both in small cooperative learning groups and in the larger context of class discussion.