Before beginning to read, Ms. Schooner discusses students' purposes for reading, why they selected the text, and the processing strategies they plan to use. When introducing a strategy, she identifies it as the focus of the lesson, mentioning other strategies with less fanfare, as appropriate. She addresses vocabulary and background knowledge during and after, not before, reading because she wants her students to be able to read when there is no teacher around to pre-teach. Ms. Schooner takes the first turn, reading aloud to the students, and modeling the use of strategies as she reads. She has taught her students that the information they use to support their responses can come from the text or from their background knowledge.
Students talk about what they are reading as they read.
Genuine literate discussions occur even in primary grade classrooms. They also keep learning logs in which they record their thoughts about content and process. When they have finished reading, Ms. Schooner works with students on vocabulary and on decoding words that proved to be problems, always returning to the place in the story where these words were used. Ms. Schooner often provides opportunities for students to reread. Students, especially the most hesitant readers, do choral reading frequently to get a feel for proficient oral reading.