After a child finishes reading a book as a part of a guided reading group, the teacher can assign after reading strategy assignments. These are assignments that are simply not assigned or completed until after the reading. These activities focus on various aspects of reading comprehension.
The Purpose of After Reading Strategies
A person reads something in order to comprehend it. Comprehension is basically the understanding of the text. The purpose of teaching reading in school is for children to begin to read to learn. Prior to this stage, though, children have to learn to read.
The two main aspects of reading include fluency – or the speed and accuracy of how a child reads, and comprehension, or how well a child understands what he reads. While during reading strategies can focus on fluency skills, most of the before, during and after reading strategies help teach comprehension skills.
Examples of After Reading Strategy Activities
The most basic after reading strategy that most teachers use is a list of comprehension questions. These questions include extrinsic questions, where the answer is stated in the text, as well as intrinsic questions where the answer is implied in the text.
Perform a play or short skit based on a scene from the book or story. This activity works well when the story includes a lot of dialogue and when read with a small group of students. Each student should choose a part, practice the lines and perform the skit in front of the rest of the class.
Write a book report. A book report might seem like an old fashion assignment, but in reality can provide a huge amount of important lessons and teaching opportunity. Students can put their own spin on the report by creating a radio advertisement, book review or movie trailer for the book. Prior to this assignment, the teachers should write a rubric for grading purposes so that the students know exactly what needs to be included in the report and how they will be graded.
A simple assignment can be for students to choose a new title for the book and explain why. This can help the student think carefully about the main ideas presented in the book and defend an opinion. The student should use examples from the story to explain the new title.
Another writing assignment a teacher can give students after they finish reading the book is for the students to write another chapter for the book. If the book continued one more chapter at the end, what would happen?
Guided reading groups are a great way to teach children how to read and comprehend what they are reading. After reading strategies are an important aspect of reading instruction as it provides a way for teachers to focus on several different comprehension strategies.
Find out more about teaching guided reading groups with Before reading strategies and During reading strategies.
Find more reading activities for use in the classroom.
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
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