Talk to the Text
Talking to the text is a strategy that is used during a reading assignment, and can be applied to any subject area.
First, students will be given a text selection to read and asked to skim through it. They will note anything that stands out to them visually. They will learn to notice things that the author is stressing as important chunks of text, for example: title, subtitle, italicized words, words in bold print, or anything else that is visibly distinctive. They will, then, write notes about these things, either in the margins of their paper (if photocopied) or on Post-It Notes (if in a textbook). After the initial skimming of the text, students will read the text thoroughly by themselves while continuing to make notes as they read. I will give them guidance with open-ended questions as they first learn this strategy, but as we talk to the text more often, students will be expected to formulate questions by themselves. After a predetermined time frame, we will discuss the text as a class or in small groups and share the notes that students have made.
The student is not passively reading the text; instead the student is making connections to his or her own personal experience and generating questions while reading. This is an effective strategy because it forces the student to become an active reader, which increases reading comprehension and retention.
First, students will be given a text selection to read and asked to skim through it. They will note anything that stands out to them visually. They will learn to notice things that the author is stressing as important chunks of text, for example: title, subtitle, italicized words, words in bold print, or anything else that is visibly distinctive. They will, then, write notes about these things, either in the margins of their paper (if photocopied) or on Post-It Notes (if in a textbook). After the initial skimming of the text, students will read the text thoroughly by themselves while continuing to make notes as they read. I will give them guidance with open-ended questions as they first learn this strategy, but as we talk to the text more often, students will be expected to formulate questions by themselves. After a predetermined time frame, we will discuss the text as a class or in small groups and share the notes that students have made.
The student is not passively reading the text; instead the student is making connections to his or her own personal experience and generating questions while reading. This is an effective strategy because it forces the student to become an active reader, which increases reading comprehension and retention.