Active Reading Strategies: Study Guide
1) Active Reader “The Stop and Thinker”: A reader who stops and uses a variety of
strategies to comprehend (understand) the text.
2) Previewing the Text “The Sneak Peek”:
 Reads the title
 Looks at pictures
 Explores vocabulary terms
 Reads the first paragraph of the story
3) Activating your Prior Knowledge “I know that already!”:
 Thinking about what you already know about a topic
4) Making Connections “What does this remind me of?”:
 Stopping to think about whether the characters remind you of yourself (Text to Self; TS)
or about another character from another story you read (Text to Text; TT)
 Thinking about whether the situation of the story reminds you of something that is
happening in our world (Text to World; TW)
5) Making Predictions “The Fortune Teller”:
 Thinking about what will happen next in a story
 A good prediction considers the textual details in a story
6) Making Comments “So, what’s your opinion?”:
 Commenting on something funny in a story
 Commenting on something a character did (character’s actions)
 Commenting on an interesting part of the story
7) Making Inferences “Can you read between the lines?”:
 A logical guess about a character or event
 To make an inference, you must combine your prior knowledge with the details in the
story.
8) Making Clarifications “Am I understanding this?”:
 An active reader clarifies when he or she does not understand something within the
text.
 Students should clarify their predictions and questions
 Students clarify to monitor their understanding of the story
9) Asking Questions “I really need to know the answer!”:
 An active reader asks relevant (important) questions as he or she reads
 An active reader infers an answer by considering the details in a story
 Students ask questions to monitor their understanding of the story
10) Visualizing the Text “The Movie of the Mind”:
 Imagining the scene in your mind
 Picturing the setting and characters
 Using your five senses: smell, sight, hear, touch, and taste
11) Don’t forget to study the Say Something! Poster