The basic element of the ETR method is discussion of a text and topics related to the text, especially students' own experiences.
Teachers conduct discussion of stories in three phases.
First, they guide students to activate what they know that will help them understand what they read, make predictions, and set purposes. This is the Experience phase. Next, they read the story with the students, stopping at appropriate points to discuss the story, determine whether their predictions were confirmed, and so on. This is the Text phase. After they have finished the story, teachers guide students to relate ideas from a text to their own experiences.