9 Reading Behaviours

Making Connections.

Making connections between the text / topic to the wider world. 

• Encourages a deeper exploration of the topic
• Develops critical thinking skills
• Allows pupils to relate the topic to their own lives

Inferring

Reading between the lines to figure out what the text really means.

• Encourages pupils to formulate their own ideas
• Develops empathy with characters / topics
• Helps pupils to look for clues in a text

Visualising

Creating a picture in the reader’s mind while reading to imagine the story / topic.

• Develops imagination and creativity
• Helps understanding of what is being read
• Tasks may include: modelling answers, timelines, storyboards, flow charts, role-play, etc.

Summarising

Putting a text into your own words

• Useful as plenary tasks
• Encourages pupils to collect and store information learned
• Helps pupils to record information and remember key facts
• Allows teachers to judge how much pupils know

Questioning

Asking questions to help understand what is being read

• Useful as an AFL (Assessment for Learning) strategy
• Encourages learners to develop a deeper understanding of the topic

Self-Monitoring

Keeping track of what you can do in order to inform questions and progress

• Useful to track pupil understanding and progress within lessons

Predicting

Pupils use information from the text such as titles, headings and pictures to anticipate what will happen in the story.

•  Predicting what will happen next enables pupils to monitor their understanding of the story while thinking ahead.

Activating Prior Knowledge

Using what you already know to support the learning of something new.

• Useful as a starter activity to determine what pupil’s already knowng of something new

Evaluating

Making judgements about what has been read.

• Develops pupils’ ability to make independent conclusions from what they have read
• Analyses the effectiveness of whole texts
• Encourages critical thinking skills