How to Survey a Book

1. How to Survey a Book • Reading the title • Chapter headings • First sentence of a new section • Key words • Captions with pictures • Any end of text questions

2. Discussion Questions • Can you see the book relating to yourself? • Does the book remind you of other works of literature? • Are there things in the world around you that you can connect to the book?

3. Literature Based Instructional Strategies Based on the Chapin article

4. Pre-Reading Strategies • Predicting • Survey • Tap Prior Knowledge • Vocabulary Up Front

5. Predicting • Have students predict what the text will be about • Could be done in pairs • Students can write down their predictions and mark if they agree/disagree with classmates’ • After reading, students check and discuss to compare their predictions with what actually happened • Any grade level

6. Survey • Have students look through the text by reading the title, chapter headings, first sentence of a new section, key words, captions with pictures, and any end of text questions • These give clues to the text’s main ideas • Beneficial to younger grade levels

7. Tap Prior Knowledge • Without a purpose, students often read mechanically without understanding of what they’re supposed to do • Connecting what they already know to the new material gives their reading significance and purpose • One of the ways to implement this is through a KWL chart • Appropriate for any grade level, will get more in depth and specific as students get older

8. Vocabulary Up Front • Teachers identify the pre-reading vocabulary and choose words that are important for understanding a particular content area or words that enhance general background knowledge • Use vocabulary in class assignments • Put words on a word wall or chalkboard

9. During Reading • Working on Completing KWL, etc. while Reading • Students have KWL chart that needs to be completed, and they work on completing it during the reading • Students fill out K and W, whilst reading, if either a K or W is answered or something else that was learned, they can record it in the L column on their KWL chart

10. KWL Chart • Can deter from comprehension since children may be more focused on filling out the chart than reading and absorbing the text • More appropriate for older grades, as younger children may be overwhelmed by the task of completing two things at once (read story and complete the chart)

11. Post Reading • Graphic Organizers • Drama • Reciprocal Teaching

12. Graphic Organizers • Visual organization of information and can take many forms • Often used as a summary • Can be helpful to help compare and contrast things just learned • Appropriate for any grade level

13. Drama • Students can dramatize part of the text • By taking on this active role, it helps students synthesize information and understand more thoroughly than just reading it and moving on • Appropriate for any grade level, will become more specific when students get older • Useful when going over history content, probably not very useful for things like economics

14. Reciprocal Teaching • Students collaborate in groups (or individually) to understand a selection of content • Students can take on roles in groups: summarizer, questioner, clarifier, predictor • One student is chosen to lead the discussion of each section of the text that was read • Discussion leader asks questions, others also ask questions • Clarifier asks for discussion to clear up problem areas • Summarizer give the summary

15. Reciprocal Teaching cont. • Appropriate for any grade (when students are given practice and understanding of their roles within the groups) • Draw upon multiple perspectives • For example, asking each classmates’ prior knowledge, plus incorporating the information available in the book we’ve read