Good Reader strategies log

When you are reading, you have to decide what part is important.  Something might be interesting or funny, but not important. Think of this, if it disappeared from the story does it change things completely? If it doesn't...it is not important.

Authors don't usually explain everything. They rely on the ability of readers to use clues to figure things out.  But of course they have to provide clues. Readers can't just make things up without evidence/clues.  

For example:  If a character is thinking a lot about doing something wrong and try to think of excuses why it's okay, you can infer that they are feeling guilty.

Characters in books are a lot like real people. They have lots of feelings. Do you notice what they are feeling? This is something good readers do.

Do you notice that a character is feeling nervous, scared, worried, happy, suspicious, excited, grateful?  In order to do this, you need to use clues from the story based on the plot.

For example: Let's say a character is crying. They could be crying because their friend got angry at them. So they are sad and broken hearted. But, they could be crying because a friend brought them a present. So they are actually overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude. 

Have you ever read a whole page and when you got to the bottom, you actually don't remember anything you read?

That happens because we aren't really paying close attention to what we are reading. We may be distracted. So we aren't actively involved and wondering about things. I call that "fake reading" which I call "freading." Get it?

Good readers are always involved and wondering things while they are reading. For example, you might wonder why a character told a lie, why a character wants to be friends with someone, or wonder why a character likes spiders so much.

Have you ever heard of schema?  This word means that we are able to understand what is happening or how a character is feeling really well because we have personally experienced something similar.

For example, if a character has a friend who lied to them, you can understand that feeling really well if that has happened to you before.

Or, if a character's dog dies in the story, you can understand totally how sad that feels if you ever had a pet die also.

Does this make sense?

Have you ever gotten so involved into a story it's almost like you are watching a movie? You feel like you are not in your room anymore...you feel like you are actually INSIDE the story!

This has happened to you if you are reading and you don't notice anything around you. Maybe your mom has to call you to dinner twice because you didn't hear her the first time!  That means you have zoomed inside a story! That's what good readers do a lot.