Thursday, October 1, 2015

California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template

            I liked this handout because it had many great ideas about how to get your students to not only read what you want them to read, but to understand it and be able to question it and respond to it in writing.  I especially like the whole section on pre-reading.  Oftentimes we forget that there is steps we need to take before jumping into the reading that will help us better understand the text. Pre-reading also helps students to develop a purpose and plan for their reading, which would help them later down the line in writing a paper about what they are reading. 

            I liked how this handout had suggestions and strategies you could use with your students to help them read and understand text, not only for the pre-reading section, but also for every section.  Some of the pre-reading activities that were my favorite suggestions were group discussions, brainstorming, role-play activities, and quick-writes.  Another section I liked that had great suggestions was the section called, “Reading for Understanding.”  I like the idea of having students read the text multiple times, with a different purpose in reading it each time so that they can identify the main ideas and then develop their interpretations and opinions on the text.  Teachers can have their students make predictions about the text and then revisit their predictions.  My favorite questions that were suggested to ask students were:  Which of your predictions turned out to be true? And if any of your predictions were inaccurate, what in the text mislead you?


            Overall, this handout is a great tool that can be used by teachers to help their students understand what they read, think outside the box, and think critically about what they read.  One of the best sections in this handout is a subsection in the post-reading section called, “Thinking Critically.”  The different questions it suggests students ask themselves after reading something would be excellent starting points for an argumentative paper.          

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