Below are some useful reading and note-taking strategies. However, there are many more! Please refer to the Research and Resources tab for other strategies and helpful information.
The Active Reading Checklist is a quick and useful way to help students know what to do while they are reading their texts. Also, this will allow you to gage how actively your students are reading.
Pre-Reading Strategies
Anticipation Guides
This pre-reading strategy will activate studentsâ prior knowledge, rouse curiosity, and get them to reflect on what theyâve learned and assess how well they understand the material.
Anticipation Guide for Biology
Text Preview
Surprisingly, previewing is a big time-saver. This strategy prepares your brain for the information youâre about to read, helps you focus, and enhances comprehension. Previewing involves skimming the text and looking for various features such as headings, subheadings, graphs, vocabulary words and chapter questions.
Textbook Components
Itâs surprising that many students donât know the parts of their textbooks. This PowerPoint will allow you to assess your studentsâ understanding of textbooks and generate discussion about the parts of a textbook.
During Reading Strategies
Annotation
Simply put, annotating means taking notes on a text. It requires the reader to actively engage with the text by writing comments, questions, describing, paraphrasing, summarizing, outlining, underling, highlighting, and even drawing.
Chunking Text (During Reading)
A key skill for students to develop is understanding complex texts. One effective strategy for this is chunking, which involves breaking down difficult material into smaller, more manageable sections. This approach helps students focus on key words and ideas, enhances their paraphrasing skills, and makes it easier to organize and combine information effectively.
Compare and Contrast Organizer
From ReadWriteThink: âThis organizer can be used to help students explain similarities and differences between two things or ideas. After this organizer has been completed, it could easily be developed into a classroom discussion or writing topic on the information gathered.â
Concept Maps
Another handy graphical tool, concept maps help students find the relationship between concepts and ideas. Usually concept maps have concepts in circles or boxes with lines joining relating concepts. Words or phrases written on the lines indicate the relationship between the concepts.
Further Explanation and Examples Here
Cornell Notetaking
Cornell note taking is a straight-forward strategy for organizing and reviewing notes. In brief, you will divide your page into three places to write down facts, questions, and to summarize. A favorite among educators, this technique has been proven to make learning more efficient and to make reviewing notes much easier.
Dual Coding
Dual coding combines written material with visuals in order to read and learn more effectively. The idea is that by providing two different representations of the information, verbal and visual, you will better understand the material.
Frayer Model
This graphic organizer is a useful tool to help students understand concepts and vocabulary. The strategy asks students to define a word or concept and explain its characteristics (or âingredientsâ) and then generate examples and non-examples of the word or concept. It accesses studentsâ previous knowledge and encourages critical thinking. It can be done as an individual activity, in small groups, or as a whole class.
KWLÂ (pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading)
The KWL strategy is a reading comprehension tool that helps students engage with a text by focusing on three steps: Know, Want to Know, and Learned. Before reading, students list what they already know about the topic and what they want to learn. During and after reading, they record what they have learned, fostering active engagement, goal-setting, and reflection.
SQ3R
SQ3R or âSurvey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review,â is a step-by-step approach to reading and learning from a textbook. Research has shown that this strategy has been very effective in improving comprehension.
Vocabulary Logs (During or Post-Reading)
Vocabulary logs provide students with a place to record unfamiliar words, along with their definitions and usage examples.
Post-Reading Strategies
Exit Slips
A favorite among READ faculty, exit slips (or exit tickets) are an informal way to measure what students understood from a lesson. They encourage critical thinking by asking students to reflect on what theyâve learned. Exit slips take different forms, and though theyâre often an individual reflection, they can also be used as a group activity. Some instructors use exit slips to check attendance.
Retrieving By Retelling
Read, cover, remember, retell! This is a simple method that will help you remember more information and know where the gaps are in your comprehension.
Note-Making Checklist and Basics of Note-Taking
In the first attachment, students assess what their note-making methods are; in the second, students learn some basic skills and strategies they will need while taking notes.
