Reading log during your reading - non fiction text
The purpose of this exercise is to help students develop their reading comprehension of factual texts through the use of a reading log. By working with the log, students have the opportunity to reflect on the content of the text, understand new concepts and keywords, and summarise and visualise what they have learned.
Create a shared reading log that you fill out the first time. The students can then work in pairs the next time to eventually be independent in their work.
Here's how you can introduce the reading log to students:
Before reading
Prepare students by activating their prior knowledge and helping them prepare for reading.
Predictions:
Look at the front of the text and discuss what they see.
Ask questions to prepare their thoughts:
What do you think the text will tell us about?
What do you think the meaning of this factual text is?
During reading
Read the text together with the students, pause at appropriate reading stops and fill in the reading log.
New concepts:
Encourage students to write down the new words and concepts they find in the text.
Pick out keywords:
Ask Students to identify keywords that they can use to summarise the text.
Questions:
Encourage students to ask questions about the text and discuss the answers together.
They can use the question words:
Who? What? Why? How? When?
After reading
Once students have finished reading the text, have them summarise and reflect.
Summary:
Have students write down what the text was about, using the keywords they collected while reading.
Visualization:
Encourage students to draw a picture that shows what the text was about. This helps them to concretise and visualise their understanding.
Reflection:
Have students discuss their summaries and images in small groups or as a whole class.
Tip!
For students who have difficulty writing or reading on their own, you can work with them during reading.
Use pictures to help explain words and concepts.
Have students draw rather than write in the reading log when appropriate.
By using the reading log, students have a structured way to engage with the text while also receiving support in developing their reading skills and vocabulary.
