"You don't first learn about reading and then read.  You learn how to read as you read."

-Fountas and Pinnel

Good Readers are Efficient Readers

• Becoming an efficient reader is a lifelong process 
• Good readers read a lot and, most importantly, know what to do when reading gets hard!
• People are not born good readers; they become good readers by understanding strategies.
• Only practice and effort can improve reading.

Specific before, during, and after reading strategies will be posted as they are introduced in class.  Students may also refer to their binder dividers for suggested reading strategies.

 You Know Your Stuck When..

• The voice inside your head isn't interacting with the text.  Readers have two types of voices-one recites and the other has a conversation with the text-asks questions, reacts, agrees or disagrees
• The camera inside the reader's mind begins to wander.
• The reader can't remember what is read.
• Clarifying questions asked by the reader are not answered.  When youcan't answer literal questions, its a sign that you need more background information or are not focused.
• The reader reencounters a character and has no recollection when that character was introduced.

Fix It!

• Make a connection between the text and your life, your knowledge of the world, or another text you have read.
• Make a prediction
• Stop and think about what you have already read.
• Ask yourself a question and try to answer it.
• Reflect in writing on what you have read.
• Retell what you have read.
• Reread.
• Notice patterns in the text structure-how the text is organized.
• Adjust your reading rate: slow down or speed up!