This document outlines several reading strategies that readers can use before, during, and after reading a text to better understand and engage with what they are reading. It describes strategies such as having a purpose, predicting, inferring, connecting, questioning, visualizing, summarizing, and evaluating. For each strategy, it provides a definition, when it can be used, and an example from the book Wonder.

1. Reading
Strategies
What is a strategy?

2. • Readers use strategies to help them
better understand what they read.
Why?

3. • Before
• During
• After
You read.
When?

4. Here are a few…

5. • What: The reader knows why a text
was written AND why they are reading
it.
• When: Before, During
• Example: The author’s purpose in
writing Wonder was to entertain and
inform. Over the summer our purpose
was to be entertained and informed
because we would have a test on it.
Having a Purpose

6. • What: The reader makes a guess
about what a story will be about or
what will happen next based on prior
knowledge and evidence in the text.
• When: Before, During, After
• Example: I predict that August and
Jack will stay friends because they
went through a lot together and they
are still friends.
Predicting

7. • What: The reader uses prior
knowledge and evidence from the
text to make a guess or draw a
conclusion about what is happening
in the text.
• When: Before, During, After
• Example: A reader might infer that
August is feeling sad if he is crying and
his dog just died, even if they author
does not say “August is sad”.
Inferring

8. • What: The reader compares
something in the story to his/her life,
another book, or the world
• When: Before, During
• Example: The book Wonder reminds
me of the book Diary of a Wimpy
Kid because they both take place
in a school.
Connecting

9. • What: The reader asks and answers
questions (where, when, why, what,
how)to gain a better understanding
of the text.
• When: Before, During, After
• Example: Why does Julian do
mean things to August?
Questioning

10. • What: The reader makes a picture
in their mind using details in the text.
• When: Before, During, After
• Example: Based on the narrator’s
description of Daisy, August’s dog, I
think that she looks like this…
Visualizing

11. • What: The reader tells the most important
parts in their own words.
• When: During, After
• Example: The book Wonder is about a
boy named August who’s face is
disfigured. He goes to school for the first
time and must learn how to make friends.
Some of the other students bully August,
but he does not change who he is. At the
end of the story, August receives the
kindness award and has many friends.
Summarizing

12. • What: The reader makes a judgment
about a text and supports it with reasons
and evidence
• When: Before, During, After
• Example: After finishing Wonder I think
that the book was great. I loved how the
author used different narrator’s because I
enjoyed seeing other perspectives,
especially Jack Will’s perspective. I was
interested to find out how he would
explain the “Halloween Incident”. Overall,
I thought it was a great book.
Evaluating