Step 2: Shared reading of a non-fiction text
Shared reading with keywords, questions, and reflections helps students understand and process a factual text in a structured way. By thinking aloud as an educator, you show students how to use different strategies to find key information, ask questions, and understand the message of the text. This process can also strengthen students' ability to summarise and analyse texts in the future.
Preparations:
Before reading the text with Students, always read it yourself first to ensure that you have a grasp of the content and can plan appropriate reading stops.
Mark the parts of the text where you want to stop and discuss words or expressions that may be difficult to understand or words that may need clarification. Some words may need to be explained for Students to understand the content of the text, while other words may be difficult to decode.
Think of questions that can be useful to stimulate Students' reflection. If students do not spontaneously come up with any questions during the reading pause, you can act as a model and show how to ask questions about the text.
Think about which keywords are important to summarise the text in a meaningful way and which words you want to pick out to provide support to the students.
Display the text on a large screen and, if possible, also give the students their own copy of the text to follow along with.
Prepare a board or flipchart where you can write down the keywords you pick out so that both you and the students can see them as you work.
Before reading:
Activate their prior knowledge by looking at the front of the book together and discussing:
What do you see in the picture?
What is the title of the text?
What do you think the text will be about?
What type of text is this? (factual text, narrative text, etc. )
Since it is a factual text, you can also discuss what students already know about the topic. Ask them if there is anything in particular they want to learn or if there is anything they think about when they see the title or pictures.
During the reading:
Read the text aloud to the students and encourage them to raise their hands if they discover a word that is new to them or if they have a question about the content.
Stop at the reading stops you have marked and sort out difficult words together. Ask students to help come up with possible meanings of the words based on the context.
Let students ask their questions about the text and reason together about the answers.
You can use question words like:
Who?
Which one/which ones?
Why?
How?
When?
As you read, together you pick out the keywords that are central to being able to summarise the text. Write the keywords on the board or flip chart so that they are visible to the students.
Repeat the same thing at appropriate reading stops to follow up and develop students' understanding of the text.
After reading:
Let the students discuss the content of the text. Here, you can guide them by asking questions that help summarise the text.
What do you think the author wants to convey with this text?
Have you learned anything new by reading this text?
Use the keywords you have jointly written down to form sentences and create a summary of the text together. This strengthens students' ability to process and understand what they have read.
