Appropriate Meaning-Making Strategies/ Forms for Critical analysis for understanding Text and Novels

 Meaning-Making Strategies 

There are many strategies for helping our students to understand and make meaning of what they read.

A few strategies that may help are as follows: highlighters/pencils, or simply a pencil. As they read, they mark the text differently to indicate and showdifferent things. You may have students circle or highlight the subject, then underline or highlight with a different color the importance of the subject. Or circle a new word/concept and underline/highlight the supporting information or definition for the concept. This can be done in multiple ways.
 * Background Knowledge- It is important to activate student's background knowledge by asking students what they know about a certain topic and helping them connect with it. There are a few ways students can connect background information.
 * Text-to-text- Connecting one text they have read in the past, to another they may be reading.
 * Text-to-self - How might what they read connect to their personal experiences? And might their experiences connect to aspects of their next text?
 * Text-to-world - Connecting what they have read to things they have seen in the news or anything around them.
 * K-W-L Chart- Students create a chart to record what they KNOW, what they WANT TO Know, and what they have LEARNED. This keeps students knowledge organized in a table as they read.
 * Writing IN the Margins- This strategy allows students to interact with the text they are reading.  By either writing directly on the text or on  sticky notes, students are able to write questions on something they are not sure about, leave a small note, or comment to what they read.
 * Marking the Text- As students read, they mark the text with either different colored highlightersMarking the text, students will use different colored
 * Ask Students to do the following as they read:
 * Visualize what the author is saying then draw and illustrate in margin.
 * Summarize the paragraphs or section to keep track of important information.
 * Clarify complex ideas by analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information (define key terms, reread sections of text, connect ideas in text and summarize)
 * Connect their reading with their own life and to the world.
 * Respond to ideas as they read (interesting ideas, emotional arguments, provocative statements, author’s claims, facts, and data).
 * Question the ideas in the text and their own understanding.  (Determine whether this is important, how does it connect, do they agree/disagree).
 * Respond to ideas as they read (interesting ideas, emotional arguments, provocative statements, author’s claims, facts, and data).
 * Students can use Drama to act out small vignettes or scenes to demonstrate they understand either plot or the character.
 * Students can use Drama to act out small vignettes or scenes to demonstrate they understand either plot or the character.

 Critical Analysis 

Other methods for students to analyze text critically would be including high-interest units, connecting the text to their personal lives through directed questions, and opportunities to share their ideas and writing in several ways. Having students share in group, partner, and class activities, as well as to parents and online forums can help students  learn how to direct their answers for a certain audience.

A few sample questions for students to ask themselves when reading and to think critically about are as follows:
 * How does this relate to me?
 * How can I paraphrase or summarize the main ideas?
 * How can I draw this concept/idea?
 * What visual and/or symbol best represents this idea?
 * What are some interesting ideas and emotional arguments that I connect with and how can I respond?
 * What is the author saying or doing here?
 * What is the purpose of this section and what do I agree/disagree with?