Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

Interactive reading is designed to help students identify key ideas from background detail. Interactive reading encourages all levels comprehension thinking including; making connections, generating questions, creating mental images, inferring, determining importance, and synthesizing. During interactive reading students work with partners or small groups to read materials that may be considered to difficult for individual reading. While in these groups students are given questions created by the teacher. These questions are designed to provoke thought and lead students to important details. Interactive reading is different than typical study guides because not all questions can be answered by skimming through the text. When preparing interactive reading guides teachers should read through the assignment looking for possible pitfalls for understanding. While creating the interactive reading guide teachers should prompt students to ask questions and stay away from from addressing background details. Before students start their reading assignment they should be asked to discus what they already know about the subject or the teacher should front load the guide with background knowledge; this will set the students up for their reading assignment. Students will receive a passage divided into segments some are to be read orally by individuals in the group and some are to be read silently by each student, while the less important can be skimmed. Students should conclude interactive reading guides by summing up their understandings and discus conclusions or generalizations that can be drawn from the text.