“

Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens well.

~ Mark Haddon, Author, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 

Reading Strategies

Effective readers use strategies before, during, and after reading to understand, analyse, and extend what they have read.

What do I do before I read?

Effective readers engage in a variety of activities before they actually start reading the words in a text. These include

• using prior knowledge to think about the topic.
• making predictions about the meaning of the text.
• previewing the text by skimming and scanning to get a sense of the overall meaning. This is a pre-reading strategy where you look at the overall text before reading in order to consider the layout and organization of a text and how that can contribute to the meaning. You should also be looking for features such as italics or bolding.

Look at the following article and consider these ideas:

1. Prior Knowledge
   1. What do you know about teenagers and cell phone use? 
   2. How much sleep are you getting at night?
   3. How much sleep do your friends get per night?
   4. If you have a smartphone or tablet, how late do you use it at night?
   5. Do you feel tired during the day?
2. Predictions
   1. What do you think the article will tell you about using a device at night?
   2. What do you think the article will tell you about typical teenager behaviour patterns?
   3. What do you think the article will tell you about teenage sleep patterns?
   4. Do you think you will you agree with the ideas presented?
3. Skimming and Scanning
   1. What do you notice about the text? (Consider font features like italics or bolding, references or citations, (definition:A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source that is not the author's original thinking.)quotations from experts, images, etc.)
   2. How was the page organized and how does that contribute to your understanding of the article?

What do I do during reading?

Good readers engage in a variety of strategies while reading. These include:

• actively thinking about what they are reading;
• questioning what they are reading about; and
• reflecting on the ideas and information presented in the text.

Read the article, "Canadian high schools resisting calls for later class start times", from The Globe and Mail (original article), then watch the video of a teacher demonstrating during reading strategies.

What do I do after reading?

Good readers engage in a variety of strategies after reading. These include:

• reflecting on the ideas and information in the text;
• relating what they have read to their own experiences and knowledge;
• clarifying their understanding of the text (by rereading or discussing the text with a peer or teacher); and
• extending their understanding in critical and creative ways.

So, What Did You Learn?

In this lesson you learned a lot about reading strategies (before, during, and after reading) and what you can do to effectively understand the meaning being communicated in a text. You also learned how to enhance your reading fluency by examining familiar and unfamiliar words from your novel.