We have finished up our first read-aloud, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, we are now moving on to one of my all time favorites, Because of Winn-Dixie,  by Kate Dicamillo.  We have been discussing in readers workshop that there are certain very important things that all readers should be doing while they are reading.  Below are a few things that we are practicing "thinking" as we are listening to a read-aloud or reading independently.

Here is a link to the official Kate Dicamillo website! http://www.katedicamillo.com/

THINGS WE THINK WHEN WE READ:

1. Seeing “snapshots”. Sometimes readers can see pictures of events, characters, and/or settings from the story.  Using the details from the text with their background knowledge, readers paint a mental picture as they read.
2. Watching the movie. Many times readers get so involved and “sucked into” (as we so eloquently describe it) their reading that they can watch the pages play out in real time in their mind.  This is especially true when readers are able to describe actions, reactions, and details that fit inside the story but the author didn’t mention.
3. Listening in. Often, a sound or dialogue is particularly real to us as we read.  We can “hear” the characters talking, the bell ringing, the door knocking.
4. Questioning the text. Readers don’t only ask questions when they don’t understand.  Sometimes, we ask questions when we do!  ”Why on Earth would Melvin jump on the table and scream like that when the lunch monitor was coming back?  Doesn’t he know he’ll get caught?”  ”How does Candace Fleming [author] come up with these stories?”  ”Will Lil win the poetry contest, or Jackie?”
5. Predicting. Have you ever watched a scary movie and found yourself saying, “Oh no!   The bad guy is going to be there!  Don’t go in that room!”  Readers do the same thing sometimes.  Good readers get involved their reading and think ahead in the story and make guesses about what they think will happen next.
6. Reactions. Sometimes, readers just spend a moment thinking about what they just read.  ”That was so funny!”  ”I loved that chapter!”  ”I’m not sure I understand what’s happening…”
7. Character’s emotions. Good readers feel sympathy and compassion for the characters.  They also share in their excitement, their successes, and their happiness.  Good readers learn climb inside the heads and hearts of the characters in the books they read.
8. Connecting within the text. Reading a book can be like threading beads on a string.  The author hands you one bead at a time and the reader has to know how to string them together.  We need to think as we read to realize little patterns, like how Miss Paige Turner is slowly changing from a mousy librarian to a beautiful blonde wearing heels and makeup.  Why?  We need to make connections from chapter to chapter to remember that it’s Melvin that everyone ignores, Lil who is poetic, and Stanford Binet who is the “downer” and serious about EVERYTHING.  (He can be a bit precocious, can’t he?)
9. Connecting from text to text. Good readers notice similarities between two or more texts as they read.  Remember what they’ve read in the past and draw from those memories constantly.  ”I’ve heard that moral before…I wonder if that comes from the Tortois and the Hare?  That would make sense, becasue the hare got lazy in the end, just like Lil, and lost the contest because the tortoise kept workiing all the way to the end.