Kylene Beers - When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do
We know that struggling or dependent readers do not view reading as an active process, but rather as a passive one.
Therefore, “it is more critical for dependent readers to talk about texts during the reading experience than after it.” [1] When
struggling readers observe other students reading, they don’t see the internal dialogue of making meaning. We must bring
the internal process of comprehension to the visible level in our classes. When talking about reading, “conversation needs
to be about readers’ responses to what they are reading as well as how they are making the reading make sense.” [2] The
following is a list of strategies suggested by Kylene Beers followed by a brief explanation of each.
Say Something: At various points in the text, students pause to say something to a reading partner. The students can
make a prediction, ask a question, clarify something, make a comment or make a connection. Struggling readers benefit
from a bank of sentence starters, because they often don’t know where to begin. When students pause to say something,
the partner responds and the students continue reading. Next time they pause, it is the other student’s turn to say
something [3]
Rereading: Of all the during-reading strategies that independent readers use, rereading is the most difficult for others so
identify because it looks the same as reading. Struggling readers hardly want to read the first time around, so it is
important to show them the value of rereading. Perhaps begin with a somewhat difficult text, which you know students will
make more sense of each time they reread it. After they see the value, you can move to using rereading. Students may
still not understand it, so you should model your thinking as you reread a text. Then, give students specific tasks as they
reread (First time through read for comprehension, second time pay attention to character A, third time pay attention to
character B). Finally, make sure to review what happened. One teacher asked students to rate their understanding after
each reading. The purpose of reviewing is to highlight the value of rereading. [4]
Think-Aloud: This strategy helps readers think about how they make meaning. As students use this strategy, they (a)
predict, (b) picture the text, (c) make comparisons, (d) monitor their comprehension, (e) decide how to repair
comprehension problems, (f) comment on what they’ve read, (g) connect what they’ve read to what they already know,
and (h) question what is happening in the text. The first step to teaching this strategy is to model it. Make sure you have a
signal for students to show that you have moved from reading-aloud to thinking-aloud (this could simply be closing the
book, or saying “thinking now…”). You can either read a text cold or use a pre-determined text. Have a student with
particularly good handwriting jot down the comments you make on the board or overhead. Afterwards, students can
decide what kind of comments you were making. Students can then practice this with a partner. Finally, provide students
with ample opportunities to practice thinking-aloud. It is important to note how Say Something and Think-Aloud are
different. The role of the partner during Say Something is to respond after each comment. Each time the students pause
in reading, they take turns saying something. During a Think-Aloud, the partner captures the speaker’s comments and
afterwards, discusses them. One student reads and thinks-aloud while the other captures all the comments and then they
switch. [5]
Double-Entry Journals: Students respond to texts by folding a sheet of paper in half long ways. One side holds notes from
the text, the other side is their response. [6]
Logographic Cues: This strategy allows students to make symbols to represent important parts of a text. Somewhat like a
traffic sign, logographic cues signal a lot of information to students in a concise and visual form. Students can develop a
bank of logographic cues on post-it notes. They can make cues for all sorts of things, such as suspense, conflict,
description, protagonist, antagonist, foreshadowing, setting, confusion, idea, connection, etc. The logographic cues signal
both things in the text and their responses to the text. [7]
Bookmarks: Bookmarks can be implemented in many different ways, but it allows students to record information on a card
that they can keep in their book and use throughout their reading. Bookmarks can ask students to focus on various things.
“Mark My Words” bookmark is for recording words that stand out to students as important or perhaps words they don’t
understand. “Marking Time” bookmark asks students to mark how the setting changes as the book progresses. “Question
Mark” bookmark asks students to note questions they have about they text. Include in the design of this bookmark a place
for students to record the answers to their questions and a place to note the page number. “Mark Who” bookmark ask
students to mark down important information about character development. “Mark the Bold” bookmark is especially useful
for expository text, and it allows students to record important information under each heading. Of course, students can
always make their own bookmark. [8]
ABC’s of Comparing and Contrasting: Using ABC boxes, students can record information about characters as they read.
Character A can be recorded in pencil, while Character B is in pen. Or each side of a piece of paper can be used for
different characters. [9]
Character Bulletin Boards: This strategy enables students to collaborate as a class to keep track of character
development. Students can write important information or create drawings of characters to add to the bulletin board. The
structure of this can vary immensely according to the teacher’s preferences. [10]
Syntax Surgery: For certain chapters or passages, re-type the text and provide copies to students. First, model surgery
and show students how you circle important words, events, or ideas and then connect them to other important words,
events or ideas. Let students practice individually or with a partner. The structure of this strategy can also vary immensely.
[11]
Signal Words: Often, dependent readers overlook signal words. Make a chart of signal words to have in your classroom.
Reference the chart during think-alouds and teach students to reference the chart. [12]
What is "Good Reading"?
There is a growing consensus in the educational field that reading should be thought of as a constructive rather than a
receptive process: that "meaning" does not exist in a text but in readers and the representations they build
[13]
. “Good”
reading moves beyond pure content comprehension and occurs when reading extends into interpretation and deeper
understanding. Haas and Flower write that “A text is understood not only as content and information, but also as the result
of someone’s intentions, as part of a larger discourse world, and as having real effects on read readers”. This means that
it is their construction of meaning which matters in the context of “during reading”. Teachers need to observe how
students construct meaning and the strategies they are using to make sense of what they are reading. Teachers should
also give students different “during reading” strategies in order to help them construct meaning properly. [14]
Reading is A.C.T.I.V.E.
A good reader does not merely turn from page to page digesting information. A good reader engages with the text, asks
questions, makes predictions and so much more. Several of these interactions are dialogic, building student vocabulary
skills and comprehension strategies.[15] Amy Goodman explains that reading is an active activity, and even uses ACTIVE
as an acronym to explain to students how to actively read:
She uses posters with each to help the students to remember that while they are reading, they need to ask questions,
create connections, track down important information, make inferences, visualize, and synthesize.
[16]
During these
interactions with the text, it is important to keep students analytically engaged, always thinking about the bigger picture
and meaning of what they are reading.[17]
Question
A good reader stops to ask questions while reading. Bethany Gorder cautions teachers about teaching too many different
strategies, instead of focusing and going in depth on one strategy. She provides examples of going deeper into the text by
asking "thick" - defined as opened ended/research or more information is needed - questions, instead of "thin" - defined
as simple questions that are answered by the book directly - questions. Gorder explains to teachers that a teacher can
give students a text and mark off where they should stop and ask questions, and do their best to answer those questions.
After nine weeks of teaching just the questioning strategy, students said that books were less boring and they could
comprehend the text better.
Here is a picture, she provides about the different levels of questions, students should be asking.
[18]
By asking questions, students are forced to become their own "meaning makers." It forces them to stop while reading to
ask questions and in turn make inferences and answer their own questions. When asked how questioning a text helps
students understand the text they responded say that it helped them:
 understand new vocabulary
 understand the meaning of a poem
 finish a book
 enjoy a book
 not get stuck
 move forward
 solve problems
 not get bored. [19]
Marcell comes up with the "Traffic Light" checklist, which ensures students know what is happening in the text and where
their focus needs to be while reading. For each, before, during and after reading segment there is a checklist
corresponding to the colors of a stop light. Before reading is classified as the color red, during reading is yellow and after
reading is green. The yellow, "While I Read" checklist consists of the following questions:
 Can I tell myself the important facts so far?
 Are there any tricky words?
 Do I have questions?
 Is my MIND MOVIE turned on?[20]
Visualize
Effective readers visualize what is happening as they read. A few ways this can happen is through forming questions as
they read, making connections between different parts of the text or to their own lives, and pulling out important ideas.
One way teachers can monitor this is through having each student have a brainstorm sheet or a bookmark where they
can draw or write a few words about what they are visualizing. The teacher also can model this type of thinking in a "think
aloud" type of activity. [21]
Hypothesize
It is always good to have students begin a challenging text with a purpose. Often times struggling readers simply give up
when they encounter texts they do not understand or that cause confusion. By having students engage themselves with
the text and to give them a purpose for their reading, students become stronger and more diligent readers. Some good
strategies to use are:
 Creating text frames with gaps
o Students are given outlines of the upcoming chapter, but with gaps that the students must fill in as they
read. This causes students to pay attention to the order of events. The finished outline can also serve as
a study guide, as well as keep track of events in previous chapters.
 Turn headings and titles into questions prior to reading.
o Have students predict what the text might be about by turning the headings into questions. For example,
in a WWII text the heading is "Minorities in Uniform." Some of the questions that could be generated are:
Were the armed forces segregated? How many minorities served? Were minority groups
disproportionately represented? etc.
o Students should by the end of reading the given passage should be able to answer the majority of their
questions.
o Note: if the passage does not answer their question that is okay. The important part is that the students
are creating a purpose for their reading and forcing themselves to pay closer attention to the text to find
answers.
 Twenty Questions
o Several times, the first chapter is the most confusing chapter for struggling readers. There is a lot
introduced, but also a lot can be left out.
o Ask students to generate twenty questions after reading the first chapter. Then as they read the rest of
the text they should be able to answer their questions.
o This exercise is important because it illustrates that it is okay to be somewhat confused at the beginning
of the text. Too often students give up after the first chapter because they are worried that they are
already a little confused-- this is OKAY!
Confirm/Alter Predictions
Monitor Comprehension
Keeping Track of Characters
Often in complex texts, keeping track of all of the different characters can be confusing. Using a character chart or a shift
chart can be helpful. A character chart helps keep track of all of the different characters and how they differ from one
another. On the other hand, a shift chart helps keep track of how characters change and develop throughout a story or
text.
Character Chart
Character
Relationship of the character
Strength of the character
Weakness of the character
Defining moment for the
character
Essential question for the
Character #1
name
Character #2
name
Character #3
name
Character #4
name
Character #5
name
character
Symbol for the character
Shift Chart
Character
Character NameCharacter NameCharacter NameCharacter Name
Early Traits
What caused the shift?
Later shifts
Three Key Questions
1. What does the text say?
2. What does the text mean?
3. Why does it matter?
Eight Strategies to help students answer the three key questions.
1. Say/Mean Chart
1. Literally just a t-chart that has literal comprehension written on the left side and what the student thinks it
means on the right. This helps students to monitor their comprehension levels of passages as they read.
2. This timeline lists events in chronological order, but then adds on different layers through asking
questions and making predictions.
2. Literary Dominoes
1. Like the game of dominoes, the series of events in stories and other texts tends to have a domino affect.
Each event affects the outcome of the following event.
2. The most effective way to do this strategy is to give the students the X, Y, Z dominoes, or the final three
events, and have the students work backwards, asking what caused this last event?
3. To add an interesting outcome to the activity, pick a random domino and remove it from the sequence.
Would this effect the outcome of the story, play, or text?
3. Flip-side Chart
1. Every statement has a flip-side, or negative view.
2. Have students use a t-chart-- place the actual event on the left hand side and have them consider why
this event might be negative. For example, the actual event could be that you can buy a new camcorder
with no interest for a year. The flip-side to this is that once that year is up the interest rate could be 20%.
4. Positive-Negative Chart
1. Have the students plot the events of a story on a line graph.
2. Each event should be plotted according to whether it has a negative or positive outcome.
3. If the event is neutral it should be on the "0" on the x-axis, if it is negative it should dip below this line and
if it is positive it should rise above it. Student can determine the degree of negativity or positivity by how
far they put the event above the line.
5. Paragraph Plug-Ins
1. Have a paragraph that summarizes the text, but with fill-in-the-blanks for the students to fill in.
2. Each of the fill-in-the-blanks will reflect one of the three key questions: What does it say? What does it
mean? Why does it matter?
3. This exercise prompts students to reread.
6. Reading Symbols
1. Students keep a log of reflections from their reading.
2. Their reflections should use the following strategies:
1. Make predictions (P)
2. Recognize when the author uses literary devices (LT)
3. Make connections (C)
4. Make judgments (J)
5. Challenge the text (?)
3. Students then trade reflection logs and write in the margins symbols next to each of the student's
statements. The symbols are above in parenthesis.
4. When students trade logs, they get a double dose of deeper reading reinforcement because they are
forcing themselves to recognize when and how these strategies are being used.
7. Responsibility Pie Charts
1. Ask students to consider which characters or people are most responsible for the book's outcome.
2. Have them assign a percentage of responsibility to each character
3. Example: During WWII, Hitler was not the only one responsible for the numerous amounts of deaths. Who
else had a part in it?
Character Interviews
A worthwhile activity that a teacher can try while students are reading is character interviews. One teacher writes that she
divides students into groups based on which character they are “interviewing” and together each group can compile
information about their assigned character. They can use story or character maps to keep track of all the aspects of their
character. After reading, students practice and perform an imaginary interview with their character, with the character
answering questions about themselves. [22]
Using the Web to Interpret Texts
Janet Beyersdorfer encourages teachers to let students use the web throughout their reading of a work to help them
understand it. Media can be a valuable resource for students who are in need of extra resources to help them understand
the text. From author interviews to background information to criticism, all of these things can be helpful for a student
during their reading.
[23]
Strategies for English Language Learners
The strategies listed here were specifically suggested for ELL students, but I believe they could be effective with any
struggling reader. ELL learners often have trouble understanding and making meaning from a text; this could be caused
by the inability to do this in their own language first. One example is T-charts. T-charts have a reader pause after every
two or three paragraphs and then write a one sentence summary of the text and then any new words. (See figure below.)
These are helpful because it forces students to make sure they understand smaller segments before trying to put together
an entire chapter of knowledge. After students have master T-charts, they can be introduced to tracking with sticky notes.
Tracking asks students to write key words on a sticky note after each segment, rather than a summary sentence. Once
the student has finished the chapter, the student is asked to write a paragraph summary of the chapter. These can help
an ELL or a struggling reader understand and comprehend a text.
[24]
A Speaking-Out-Loud Voice
Thomas Lux said that the voice in your head when you read is not silent, but a 'speaking-out-loud' voice. Sharon SKeans
takes this a step further and asserts that "One of the most crucial lessons English teachers can teach theirstudents is the
ability to hear the 'speaking-out-loud voice while reading"[25] . When they can do this, she assures us, they are active
readers, they have experiences interacting with the text. The "barn" the writer wrote, as Lux put it, becomes the "barn" the
student knows.
The best way to faciliatate this inner dialogue? "Use writing as a tool while directly teaching ••••comprehension
strategies. This reading-writing connection can be done not only before and after, but also during the reading of the
selection"[26] .