RWS reading and thinking strategies

• Previewing a piece of writing helps to get an idea of what it is about
• Activating prior knowledge is using information you already know and previous personal experiences to create meaning in what you read
• Visualizing is when mental images are created in the mind to connect to the text for better understanding
• Sequencing involves identifying the components of a story - the beginning, middle, and end - and retelling events in the order they occurred
• IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEA AND DETAILS helps in recalling important information and understanding the writer's points
• Asking questions before, during, and after reading helps develop a deeper understanding of the text
• 1. W-L chart combines asking questions and activating prior knowledge strategy:

  • K (Know): Remember what you already know about the topic
  • W (Want to Know): Ask what you want to know about the topic
  • L (Learned): Specify what you learned about the topic when you read the text
• Paraphrasing strategy focuses on the most important information in a passage, improving recall of main ideas and specific facts
• Drawing conclusions involves inferring information that is not clearly stated by the writer
• Identifying cause and effect involves recognizing why events happen in a text
• To summarize is to reduce larger selections of text to the key ideas and main points worth noting and remembering
• Synthesizing goes beyond summarizing by combining ideas to form an evolving understanding of the text
• When synthesizing, conclusions and other ideas are put together to form a new overall understanding