Before Reading​

1. Choose a reading passage where students may benefit from guidance, often informational or content-heavy text.

2. Pinpoint sections of the text that contain essential content, challenging vocabulary, or difficult structures.
3. Design the Guide:

• Include prompts or questions that direct students to the main ideas you want them to gain from the reading.

• Embed scaffolds such as sentence frames or vocabulary definitions.

• Organize the guide so that it follows the structure of the text (e.g., page by page, paragraph by paragraph). This is also known as “chunking” a text.

During Reading

1. Distribute the guide before reading begins.

2. Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to complete the guide as they read.

3. Optional - Have students read aloud in pairs as they complete the guide to include fluency practice.

After Reading

1. Use student responses to guide a class discussion.

2. Revisit key concepts and address any misconceptions.

3. Use the completed guide as a formative assessment of comprehension.

Consideration

Creating a reading guide takes time, and it often requires teachers to reformat text selections. The outcome is worth the time and effort, but making reading guides for every text selection is not practical. Use this strategy selectively and for high-leverage texts.